Upcycled Wine Bottles

For my Upcycle project, I decided to make a collection of items with rustic aesthetics out of wine bottles. This aesthetic I was trying to achieve feeds off the scored and broken glass edges of the glass cut and the natural tones of the bottle colors. The final products can be seen in the two images above and the image of the clear wine glass below.

Figure 1 – Earth Tones

Figure 2 -Wine Bottle Candle Example

I decided to look into glass cutting to achieve my vision of an upcycled wine bottle collection. After researching, all the cautions told me to be careful as glass is brittle with sharp edges, so I purchased a glass-cutting kit from amazon that included special gloves and a pencil to score the glass before plunging it under hot and cold water.

But I first had to remove the labels from the bottles, which I accomplished by using hot water, baking soda, and a credit card, as seen above. Now that the glass was clean, I could start with my first idea: to cut the bottom off a bottle with a bulge and cut the neck off the same bottle. As seen above, I had a few mishaps with my scoring; hot and cold water poured, resulting in cracks forming and shattering the bottle.

From there, I could sand the edges, so there were no sharp areas and glue the neck of the bottle to the bulge of the bottom to create a wine glass. After letting the super glue cure for a day, I tested the cups for leaks and used them the next day with my roommates. Now they both sit in my cabinet, waiting to be used.

I wanted to experiment with painting on the bottle for my next piece. My thought was to create a piece of artwork that resembles an actual label. For this piece of art, I decided to do my rendition of Starry Night by one of my favorite artists, Vincent Van Gogh. I started by taping out a rectangle and painting it with white. Then I painted the background blue and started with detailed work of the clouds. Moon starts, and the tree.

From there, I could add some mess-ups or artistic liberties and peel off the tape to get the final project. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of experimentation and testing while I found the extent of what I could do with glass. Overall, I believe the painting turned out quite well as it is a functional collection of wine glasses with a piece of art. I’m excited to further test and create more interesting pieces out of glass.

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