Another favourite for glass artists - or at least bead makers, but lesser known by other people. You'll need:
- a bottle - by all means, choose one that is important to you, from your wedding, birthday, anniversary, work event, etc. - or just any bottle.
- glass bead making equipment (torch set-up, oxygen concentrator, mandrels, bead release, kiln, tweezers)
Break the bottle into small pieces, pick up with tweezers, pre-warm gently at the back of the flame, then melt glass and wind around mandrel. Put in kiln, leave to cool down, clean of bead release, and turn into memento jewellery.
...Now...the reason I'm sharing this particular project this week is because of a "bottle experience" my little boy had. So, our steps were as follows:
- a bottle - by all means, choose one that is important to you, from your wedding, birthday, anniversary, work event, etc. - or just any bottle.
- glass bead making equipment (torch set-up, oxygen concentrator, mandrels, bead release, kiln, tweezers)
Break the bottle into small pieces, pick up with tweezers, pre-warm gently at the back of the flame, then melt glass and wind around mandrel. Put in kiln, leave to cool down, clean of bead release, and turn into memento jewellery.
...Now...the reason I'm sharing this particular project this week is because of a "bottle experience" my little boy had. So, our steps were as follows:
1. Take small child. Stumble upon an old bottle in the woods. With utmost care, prepare and execute your own archaeological dig. Take shards home and clean carefully.
2. Spend an enjoyable afternoon doing a "bottle jigsaw" before gluing together the pieces. Research old medicine bottles with small child and discover that the bottle is about 100 years old - marvel at the ancientness of this. Get frustrated because there are a few shards that simply won't fit.
3. Go to studio, intending to make perfectly round beads (as in picture above) from leftover shards. Learn through experimentation that glass recipes 100 years ago were either different, or 100-year-long burial in soil (or indeed, simply age) has altered chemical components of glass, so that it boils almost simultaneously to melting. Manage one lame, non-round bead that is not too badly burnt, and file under "experiment not too many people will have done", before returning to melting modern bottles with ease.
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