Making beads from a champagne bottle

[Maytime]

Hi

I need some advice please.

How would I go about making beads from a champagne bottle.

Technique and annealing advice much appreciated - I would like to make some for a family member as a present.

Shelley

[menty666]

clean it really well
remove the top and the bottom
cut the remaining piece into strips
make your beads

Annealing is a little trickier but since it's probably soft glass you can try something similar to a schedule for Bullseye

Good luck!

[Tink]

I've never had a lot of luck with cutting a champagne bottle into strips, so I just safely break the bottle, then pull cane from chunks and proceed from there.

[menty666]

I'd probably do the same, but I wonder how it would work using a larger ring saw. Hmmph. If I had one.....

[Henrywashere]

I can answer this because being a greenie and all its 1 of my pet things to do. What I do is wrap the bottle in an old tea towell and then give it a good wack with a hammer (actually surprising how hard you have to hit it to break). I then take my mosaic cutters and snip it into useable sizes. I use a stainless steel chop stick as a punty and just bring a small corner into the flame and then heat the chop stick to glowing and attach to the punty. I then take the whole piece of glass quite a long way into the back flame and waft it about (more than you would for a rod of glass) as it get hotter I bring it in closer to the flame. I then take my mashers and mash it into a sorta rod sized piece, and then just make beads as normal. I anneal mine at 510c and have never had any problems. Dont be tempted to put glass from different bottles together because they dont like to play nice. I have added 96Raku and had really good success and nice colours. I will see if I might have some pics to add (when I can remember how to do it on here).

[honey*bee]

OMG!! I didn't know you could recycle glass!! What other linds of comonly used glass can be used???

[menty666]

Ooh, I like the amber hollows!

That coin's pretty neat too. I don't know if I'm just used to it or if US currency is really really dull.

[playswithfire104]

I've used beer bottles, ice tea bottles, pretty much any glass that you would put out with the recycling. When I was just starting out this was a great way to save money on glass to practice with. Since I was going to throw it away anyhow it didn't matter is I screwed up so I had less stress. I've had good luck using bottle glass with goldstone.

[honey*bee]

Originally Posted by playswithfire104

I've used beer bottles, ice tea bottles, pretty much any glass that you would put out with the recycling. When I was just starting out this was a great way to save money on glass to practice with. Since I was going to throw it away anyhow it didn't matter is I screwed up so I had less stress. I've had good luck using bottle glass with goldstone.

Thats great! Whats goldstone?

[Maytime]

WOW

Thank you guys so, so much - I really appreciate your help on this one.

Henrywashere - thanks for the photos your beads are gorgeous.

[theglasszone]

Sheesh, Henry!!! Those are really great!!! I'm very impressed - and inspired! My nephew is getting married next month (08/23/0 - he's finance is a jewelry lover, and maybe she would like me to try and make some beads from some of the champagne bottles from the reception!

I'm subscribing to this thread!!!

~DeAnne

[earthandsky]

When I first tried making beads out of reclaimed glass, I tried to melt the shard directly onto the mandrel, and it was rather unpleasant to do it that way. As my glass skills progressed and I could control a glob of glass on a punty, I found it infinitely easier to melt the shard down and pull a cane and then make the bead.

Like Tink I safely break the bottle. I usually double bag it in ziploc freezer bags and lay it out on the concrete driveway and hit it with a hammer. Then Henry is correct when he says you must introduce the shard into the flame very, very slowly. I get a punty attached to a corner (I like metal chopsticks too), then work on melting down the rest of the shard into a gather, and then pull it out. When it's cool, I snip off the ends that were on the metal punty and make my beads.

[jesscause]

I haven't used bottles or anything like that but I have used those mosaic pieces they sell at michaels. I bought one of their $5 candle warmers and set the glass pieces on that for a little while and it was no problem to introduce it to the flame. I didn't have to go way back and bring it in for 5 minutes so maybe you should get one of those, or a hot plate which is like $19 from walmart, or just get them warmed up in the kiln. It would seem to me that it would prevent less shattering (of the pieces being introduced into the flame) and save some production time! Good luck melting bottles!! lol

[Marjo]

Wow, this is a great thread, I have been wanting to try this! Thank you all!

[Maytime]

Originally Posted by theglasszone

I'm subscribing to this thread!!!

~DeAnne

Hi please could someone tell me what this means?

[menty666]

Originally Posted by Maytime

Hi please could someone tell me what this means?

At the top of the page there's a link called "Thread Tools" From there you can subscribe to the thread so that when it's updated you get some notification via email.

[Maytime]

Ahhhhh.......I see......thank you

[dalilly]

I take my glass cutter and score the top and bottom around the bottle, then break them off. Usually a good whack will knock it off. Then score lines from top to bottom, place in dish towel, put on concrete and whack with a hammer. Not all come out as strips, but those that do are put onto my coffee cup warmer and worked the same as a glass rod. The other pieces I make fat stringers and this makes them easier to handle than just blobs.

With such a large family, I've taken all types of bottles from "events" and made glass memories.

I anneal the same as my soft glass schedule. I've been told most bottles are soda glass. No problems so far.

Linda

[Laura Bronson]

oh this is so cool--- goodness knows I am a recycle Queen and have heard about doing this....but now this gives me INSPIRATION!! Thanks!!

[ItsMeRoRo]

Originally Posted by jesscause

I haven't used bottles or anything like that but I have used those mosaic pieces they sell at michaels. I bought one of their $5 candle warmers and set the glass pieces on that for a little while and it was no problem to introduce it to the flame. I didn't have to go way back and bring it in for 5 minutes so maybe you should get one of those, or a hot plate which is like $19 from walmart, or just get them warmed up in the kiln. It would seem to me that it would prevent less shattering (of the pieces being introduced into the flame) and save some production time! Good luck melting bottles!! lol

Hi There

I have also used the candle warming plate, but kept melting the plastic rim... I became afraid of getting shocked... so I got a small simmer pot and that has worked really well for me.

Cheers!

[Firebrand Beads]

They use bottle glass to make those powder-glass beads in Ghana, too. They use a big 'ol piece of metal, like a truck drive shaft, to crush up beer and soda bottles in a canister, then put the frit into molds and the molds go into the furnace. Cedi Djaba in Krobo is now using lots of Bullseye powder for coloring his bottle beads, and doing the decorations on them, so I suspect a bullseye annealing schedule might be on the right track?

[Maytime]

WOW

I'm just so pleased to see all the interest in this thread.

Please post any pictures of any beads you make. I have 'encouraged' OH to finish off a bottle of wine this evening so that I can do a trial run with it before having a go with the champagne bottle.

[menty666]

I just finished a bottle of wine tonight...I hadn't thought about crushing it into frit and tossing it into molds. Hmmm..

[tikiterri]

I've had some experience using bottles so I thought I'd post the method I use. I'm always in a hurry and it drives me crazy sitting there picking up small pieces of glass to make a bead. So to save a lot of time I make rods first from the bottles. I use the vitrigraph method. For those not familiar with it here are some photos.

Take a flower pot and make the hole in the bottom larger. Then add the glass to a flower pot. Take the kiln off its bottom and set it on top of vermiculite boards with a hole in the center. My outside table is a tile top so I took the tiles out and put the vermiculite board over where the tiles were. Next set the flower pot of glass over the hole in the center of your kiln.

Next put the lid on and fire up the kiln. I set the controler on full to 1700 hold 3 hours. In about an hour and 10 minutes the glass starts to come out the bottom into rods.

Wear eye protection and gloves. Pull glass for thinner rods or leave it drip out on its own for thicker rods. I used a file and score where I want to cut them. Tap on the rod and it'll breaks off where I scored it.

I lay them on fiber blanket to cool. And here is what I end up with to work with.

Then make your beads using the rods. Here is a sample of a few simple beads....

I hope this all makes sense. Also when I'm finished I store the rods in tubes and write the persons name on the tube. Seems they always want more for their friends or wedding party after I give them their set.

[Maytime]

tikkiterri - you are a genius!!!

Thank you so much for sharing.

[simvet02]

Oh how I wish I had thought of this when I was just learning to lampwork. I have fused wine bottles into cheese plates or spoon holders by slumping them down but never thought of using the glass for practice beads. I could have saved sooooo much money. The fugly bead collection is just go large at this point and melting them down doesn't always work if you can't get the bead release out.

I did sprinkle some 96 frit inside one of the bottles that I slumped and it worked quite well.

Super ideas guys.

[playswithfire104]

Terri that's great if you have that kind of kiln. Do you need to put kilnwash in the inside of the pot?

[tikiterri]

No, I don't use kiln wash on the pots. I just knock the glass back out of the hole and use it as a flower pot.

[Art of Hand]

I also started my Lampwork career as a recycler of any type of glass! I even melted seed beads (had about 10 kilo's of them that I used to use for loomweaving) successfully. It really taught me to pull even stringers of controlled thickness way back in the beginning!

I also melted some damaged/broken venetian vases, and got very interesting colours when I used that. The main thing is not to be scared, but just jump in and do it. And it is a lot of fun. I sold a beautiful spine bead the other day that was just the glass and some silver foil. Made up in a pendant with lots of chunky silver, it was not only pretty, but it also had an intersting 'story' that the new owner could tell. I used some Jonny Walker Blue Lable glass which is the most amazing soft tealy blue grey colour.

Enjoy and cheers!

Diana

[tikiterri]

I can't remember the last time I threw away anything made from glass. It can be repaired or melted and formed into something wonderful. Besides beads and jewelry you can make ornaments, tiles, window catchers, chimes, icycles, lights, dishs, vases, etc. I think the possiblitiles are endless. The only compliant that I've always had is that there is never enough hours in a day to experiment.