I like making this style of bracelet because it’s nice to show a mix of beads in a bracelet, and they all sit really nicely on the wrist.
This bracelet features recycled glass beads made from wine and gin bottles.
Wine and gin bottle bracelet
Tag: recycled glass beads
Is this useful – post #3
A friend of mine recently gave me this lovely purple bottle. It was “not useful” to her because it was cracked, so she thought maybe I could make some beads with it instead.
That same night I was chatting with a glass collector, and he told me that the bottle had no value, and that the colour in the glass was from being out in the sun for a long time. I can’t remember the exact science behind it, but essentially, as the bottle was exposed to UV rays over years and years, it slowly changed the colour of the bottle from clear to purple.
This made me wonder….how would the glass handle being heated by my torch?? Would it make it more purple? I kind of hoped so, but I was also doubtful.
Anyway, I thought this was the perfect week to give it a go, so I broke the glass, melted it and made a few beads, but I could kind of tell while I was melting it that things were not looking good for the glass.
When I took the beads out of the kiln, I could see they were all a bit of a mess really! So it turns out that this glass was not useful for my friend, not really useful for me either, but I did learn something about glass, so maybe it wasn’t so useless after all??
Pretty gin and tonic earrings
I made this bracelet recently.
I liked how the red and blue beads mixed together. I thought a pair of earrings might work well, so I was glad that I had some beads ready to go. Here are the earrings that I made this morning.
Made from a broken window
Years ago I made some beads from a broken window, and I had kind of forgotten about that as a source of recycled glass until I was planning my work for The Adelaide Remakery.
I thought a broken window would suit the theme of the exhibition really well.
I tried some new techniques to make the beads for these pieces. The necklace is super interesting, with lots of movement and interesting colours.
Design
I thought about design a LOT while I was away. Often what I share with the world is a finished and polished product that is ready to purchase. What you don’t always get to see are the sketches, the prototypes, the changes of direction, the tweaking that goes on behind the scenes. Things that might turn an idea for a pair of earrings into a necklace, things that might mean it’s back to the drawing board, things that might mean I put the piece aside for a bit longer.
I made these beads before I went away and today I had a chance to think about the possibilities in all of them. Drawing board? Necklace? Put aside? You will have to wait and see!
Beads made from a Bethany Winery chardonnay bottle.
Wine bottle beads
The thing I love about clear wine bottles is that you can do so many things with them. Yes, I can make clear beads and I often do make clear beads. But I can also get my frit out, which is really just crushed glass, and while the bead is still hot I can roll it in the frit, then melt it in and make really wildly colourful glass beads like these!
I had intended for these beads to go into a different project but when I saw them all sitting on my desk together I thought…maybe I’ll try putting them together. Glad I tried!
All from a broken cup…
Remember that broken orange cup from last week? I made these earrings and this necklace from the cup.
I had also made a bunch of small round beads to test out the glass and see how it reacted in the flame. They have been sitting on my workbench for a little while now, and today I thought I would try to make a bracelet with them.
I moved beads in and out, and around, and back in again until I finally landed on something I quite liked. Here it is…
Making recycled glass beads
Today I made a necklace featuring beads from wine, gin and tonic bottles. I love taking the time to talk to people about how these beads are made, so here goes:
- I get lots of donations of gin and wine bottles (thanks to everyone who takes the time to do this). When I get the bottles I have to first of all clean them. This involves soaking them in hot water to remove the labels and clean the inside of the bottle. Sometimes the labels are a bit sticky, so I will use Eucalyptus oil to do the final clean for me.
- The next step is to smash the bottle! I put the bottle in a pillowcase and hit it as hard as I can with a hammer. I then take the broken pieces out of the bag and put them in a container with the same type of glass. It’s important that I don’t mix glass as they may not be compatible.
- Next it’s time to make the beads. Before I start making the beads I heat the glass on a hot plate. The reason I do this is because glass is temperamental! It does not like to be heated up too quickly (and it does not like to be cooled down too quickly). If I were to place glass straight into the flame it would just smash into a million pieces. So warming it up helps a lot. Less wasted glass.
- My torch runs oxygen and LPG (which is the gas you use for BBQs). I use really long tongs to pick up the warm glass and then carefully introduce that to the flame and warm it up enough to make it melt. Once it has started to get a bit “drippy” I will wind the glass onto a stainless steel mandrel (coated in bead release) and start using different tools and techniques to make the beads.
- Once the bead has been made it goes into the kiln to go through the annealing process. This is where the molecules align and the bead is strengthened. The beads stay in the kiln until I have finished for the day. They will sit at 510 degrees celsius for a further half an hour before I start ramping down the kiln.
- The next day the kiln is cool enough to remove the beads. They then need to be removed from the mandrels, and the holes then need to have the bead release cleaned from them.
- Phew! After that, the beads are ready to use to make necklaces like this:
Champagne and gin earrings
Similar style to yesterday’s earrings, but this time with different beads. I have used beads that I have made from champagne, Bombay Sapphire Gin and Tanqueray Gin bottles. Love the colours in this pair.
Classic timeless earrings
I love the contrasting shape and colour in these Gin and Tonic earrings.
The top bead is from a Fever-Tree tonic bottle, decorated with smashed up glass. The bottom bead is from a Hendricks Gin bottle. Love the shape of this bead, and together it become a classic timeless pair of earrings that I think could be worn for a very long time.
