I finished the 12km City to Bay run this morning! It felt so good to work towards something for the past several months and then actually achieve it today. I had said to my husband I would be happy to just finish running, and not walk at all along the way. I did that! And I also did a really good time (for me)!
This bracelet features beads made from a Hendricks Gin bottle.
I had so much fun doing the “Is this useful” series, and sharing where the recycled glass beads originated from. I think it’s fun to make those connections, and for people to maybe start wondering about glass and recycling a little bit more.
Today I made a pair of earrings from a Hendrick Gin bottle. I am heading “out on the town” with my husband tonight. These nights are fairly rare, and very precious! I feel like wearing these earrings as I sip on a Gin and Tonic at a trendy little bar in Adelaide!
Ruby Glass was mostly made in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. It was super expensive to make this type of glass because it needed gold to create the gorgeous colour. I often go to antique shops to look at all sorts of glass. My eye is always drawn to the Ruby Glass, but unfortunately it’s always way more than what I can afford to spend on glass.
The other day I was in an antique shop when I spotted this piece. It was so pretty, but as I got closer I also notice it was quite broken (and glued back together). I wondered what price they were asking. At last! Something that I could afford. The lady in the antique shop was quite apologetic about the state of the glass, but I told her that didn’t bother me at all.
It took a while to make some beads with the glass, but I have started small to test it out, and these hearts are super sweet!
I was only planning to do a week of “Is this Useful” posts. But as I was going through all of the glass objects that I had been given I kept finding things that I wanted to try. These tiny medicine bottle were another item that I’d had for a while, and I was curious to see how they would melt.
I have quite a collection of bottles from people, and I don’t always get around to using them. Often these bottles take some time to clean, and then I have to smash them, so the process prior to making beads is a bit time consuming. I kind of like to have a reason to make beads from these bottles, so this week has been quite cool, as it has given me a reason to take some of these bottles and turn them into new pieces of jewellery.
I have had these Cointreau bottle beads ready for a few days, but I thought it needed a little something extra, so I made some beads from my favourite orange cup to add to the earrings. Love how these turned out!
I’ve been having so much fun making beads from all of these new objects. I’ve been excited by the new colours of glass that have worked really well.
And then…well, let’s just say I had very high hopes for this beautiful gin bottle. I thought the colour was great, and it would mix well with some of the other gin bottle colours that I am using. But then I heated the glass, and all of that beautiful colour disappeared!
I had not even considered using an olive oil bottle until someone brought one to me asking if I could use it….
I was given this cup a while ago, and I loved the colour of it, but I hadn’t had a chance to use it until this week. This week seemed like a good time to test it out, and I’m glad that I did. The colour is really unique, and the beads that I made from it are lovely. I’m looking forward to making more beads from this glass and adding it into some of the jewellery pieces that I make with recycled glass beads.
A friend of mine recently gave me this lovely purple bottle. It was “not useful” to her because it was cracked, so she thought maybe I could make some beads with it instead.
That same night I was chatting with a glass collector, and he told me that the bottle had no value, and that the colour in the glass was from being out in the sun for a long time. I can’t remember the exact science behind it, but essentially, as the bottle was exposed to UV rays over years and years, it slowly changed the colour of the bottle from clear to purple.
This made me wonder….how would the glass handle being heated by my torch?? Would it make it more purple? I kind of hoped so, but I was also doubtful.
Anyway, I thought this was the perfect week to give it a go, so I broke the glass, melted it and made a few beads, but I could kind of tell while I was melting it that things were not looking good for the glass.
When I took the beads out of the kiln, I could see they were all a bit of a mess really! So it turns out that this glass was not useful for my friend, not really useful for me either, but I did learn something about glass, so maybe it wasn’t so useless after all??
When Helen gave me this Dior perfume bottle I hoped that the colour would stay true, and would not burn out when I melted it. I was thrilled when I opened the kiln to find the most beautiful beads. I love the silver sparkle on them too, it makes them look perfect for a romantic night out!
Thanks Helen, for thinking about this glass bottle before throwing it in the bin!
