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Lapsed anthropologist-turned-burlesque performer and post-modern punk housewife/homesteader living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with a hunky husband, gorgeous daughter, adorable corgi, fluffy rabbit, and three clucking fabulous chickens.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Pinterest Challenge: Bottle Vases




So...there have been lots of tutorials on Pinterest on how to turn wine bottles into vases or tumblers. Some of our dear friends are getting married, and wanted to try it, so we volunteered our space. Turns out it works pretty well!

What you need:

Bottles
Kitchen twine
Acetone(nail polish remover)
Bucket of ice water
Lighter

What we did:
Cut a length of kitchen twine long enough to wrap around the bottle four or five times. Then soak it in acetone(nail polish remover). Wrap the twine around the bottle, tie it in place, and light. Make sure your fingers are a safe distance away from the flaming twine.



Rotate the bottle quickly and evenly, so the flames run around the length of twine. This may take a few minutes, and you should be able to turn the bottle a good half-dozen times before the flames die down. Once the flames go out, immediately immerse the bottle in the bucket of ice water, with the neck pointing down.


The bottle should separate into two pieces with a loud "crack!"
Our first couple of attempts yielded somewhat uneven and rough edges, but after a bit of practice, the bottles started separating cleanly.












Obviously the edges will need to be sanded and smoothed, but overall we were all very impressed by how well this method worked.




In between adventures with flaming bottles, a couple of my friends managed to catch Ruth and say "hello". Ruth wasn't terribly interested in making friends, though.




Mr. Bear was worried Ruth might scramble and claw at Jessie, as we have both been on the receiving end of Ruth's social anxiety.





6 comments:

  1. I have tried thIs many times to no avail :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry it didn't work for you. :( One thing we found is that we had to keep the bottles inside until we were ready for them, one by one, and we had to keep the water very cold.

      Delete
  2. Anyone had issues even getting the string to light? Tried several kinds of string/twine with no luck even getting it to catch

    ReplyDelete
  3. I did this and had issues using a regular lighter, but it worked great with my kitchen torch!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, I hadn't considered using a kitchen torch! Great idea!

      Delete
  4. What pretty red hair that women has!!

    ReplyDelete

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