bricks and baubles: Bottle Votives- how to cut glass

Collect some bottles. You can use any glass bottles, but I was looking for something for my thanksgiving table, so amber glass seemed like the best idea.

Then to remove the labels I submerged them in water in the sink for aproximately half an episode of Parenthood, or 30 minutes... it may not have actually needed that long, but I got distracted.

You will also need acetone and 100% cotton string or yarn. Yes 100% cotton is crucial. I tried 3 other types of string I had lying around and it didn't work at all.

Wrap the sting around the bottle 8-10 times, the more string you use the longer it will burn and the hotter it will get. Repeat on all bottles.

Then take the string off the bottle and submerge the string in a bowl of acetone. The string did a good job staying in its little loops. All 6 loops are in the bowl together in the picture above.

Fill your sink with COLD/ ICY water.

After soaking about a minute take out your first loop and put it back on the bottle.

The bottle will break near the line of the string, so place it acording to the height you would like the votive to be.

I dipped both my hand in the water before lighting the string to get the acetone off my hands. Light the acetone and turn slowly for at least 20 seconds.

The flame will be very controlled, and it will get blue at almost exactly 20 seconds, when the flame is blue and short place it in the icy sink water and it should pop apart imediately.

Because the glass in the beer bottles is so thin, it cracked a little around the edges. but it was not a big deal to me. I think if I had help the bottle more horizontally so only the string was getting hot, this might have helped.

You could totally use them like this, or accent with twine or ribbon, but I wanted mine to be shiney too.

So I spray painted the insides lightly with silver spray paint. if they are still a little damp, or you mist them with water they will look more like mercury glass. Accidental discovery! I am wishing I had done gold though now. Let them dry and you can remove any overspray on the outside with acetone. Then place a tealight candle inside.