Recycled Treasures: Transforming Wine Bottles into Candles (Pt. 1) with @storybird

I have been increasingly interested in upcycling and wanted to share my experience transforming glass bottles into candles!

I have always found glass bottles to be beautiful; it's the way the light shines through them and creates this glow of color in the room. There's a calming energy I get from seeing those earthy tones illuminated. My mission was to recreate them into something partially functional not only in an effort to upcycle but to also let the vessels and their stories live on in a brand new form.

The Stash

My family members all had the same reaction when I texted them this process photo: "Did you drink all of that by yourself?"

It took me a long period of time to save these up. Some were gifts, some I found, and we occasionally cook pasta sauce with a little wine!

Oh, Punts!

See that big hump at the bottom of the bottle? I came to the realization that I had to eliminate all of the bottles that had punts from candle-making. A: It would be challenging to stabilize the wick at the base of the bottle while the wax cooled, and B: It would be a waste of wax since the candle would not burn close enough to the bottom of the vessel with the punt there stopping the wick. This eliminated about 80% of the bottles I had from the running.

Removing Labels

I filled the kitchen sink with hot water, soap, and let the bottles soak for 30 minutes. I researched a lot of different methods, but I wanted to try one that was as non-toxic as possible.

The temptation to stick my hand in before the 30 minutes was strong...but I needed to be patient and let time do its magic!

Ding ding! Thirty minutes was up! Depending on how the manufacturer attached the labels to the bottles, some fell off while soaking, some came off cleanly with a gradual pull, and some just wanted to stay on the bottle. For those pesky ones, I took a sharp flat edge to the labels and scraped away, but I would avoid that in the future for safety reasons.

The final step of cleaning the label glue off was taking the rough side of a sponge with some olive oil and scrubbing away. This was followed by a soap and water rinse so that the bottle wouldn't be slippery for the cutting process.

I concluded that my favorite bottles to work with were either a Health-ade Kombucha bottle or San Pellegrino sparkling water bottle, because they were relatively cost-effective, had no large punts, and the labels came off easily!

And there they are - lookin' fine!

I let the bottles dry before starting the cutting process.

Whew! I never would have imagined that it would take that long to prep the bottles.

Scoring and Splitting

I researched some bottle-scoring products and went with one that had good reviews. I determined what I wanted the candle vessel height to be and carefully rolled the bottle over the blade per instructions. I scored the bottle all the way around once.

I then alternated the bottle between ice cold and very hot water until the bottle split! Sometimes, there's this beautiful crystalline cracking sound that you hear before the bottle splits.

After experimenting with the scoring and splitting methods, the bottle did not always split evenly or sometimes at all. My goal for the time being was to successfully split enough bottles for the wax-testing process that would follow, and I got there eventually! When I find more time, I will get to the bottom of how to get a consistent break every time. I have seen the methods with lighting the string, but that one scares me a little bit!

Sanding

I used safety goggles, a mask, gloves, and three different grits of wet and dry sandpaper to smooth down the edges of the glass. I then washed the glass to remove the sanded glass particles.

Voilà! There you have a de-labeled, washed, cut, and sanded vessel for your candle. Since it was my first time sanding, I did scratch the vessel a little bit but was okay with it! I liked this cup so much, I ended up making this one my drinking glass.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

This is part one of the recycled candle-making process! Please let me know if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or other cool ideas for upcycling things around the house.

Until next time, Steemians!
Ca-caw!