Vases from wine bottles

Discarded items like glass wine bottles have loads of potential for ‘re-interpretation’.

Shopping list
• 1800 x 90 x 20mm meranti cut to: one 420mm piece (crosspiece) two 105mm (legs)

Plus
• used glass bottles or jars
• wood glue
• 8mm wooden dowel
• 40mm chipboard screws

Tools
• dril
• 76mm hole saw or jigsaw (optional)
• sander
• hacksaw blade
• handsaw and mitre box
• glass cutter
• pencil
• tri-square
• measuring tape
• G-clamp
• Glass bottle cutting kit (optional)

Project notes
• You could use any bottles, glass jars or a combination thereof. Try upsizing your installation by using more than three bottles, but stick to the odd numbers rule (use 1, 3, 5, 7 bottles) for a ‘balanced’ look.
• We made our own basic cutting jig by fixing two pieces of timber, bottle-wide, into a U-shaped trough onto a flat base, with and end stop – but you could use the handy Business-in-a-Box Bottle Cutting Kit (R400, bottlecraft.co.za) that has all the bottle-cutting tools you need.
• One 1800mm-length is enough for two bottle stands; so make another as a gift while you’re at it!

Get started

Making the bottle holder
1 Drill two pilot holes at each end. Fit the hole saw into the chuck and drill out the bottle openings. TIP An offcut piece under the plank will prevent the wood from splitting.

2 Position the 420mm length over the legs and fix in place using the drill and 40mm chipboard screws, driving the screws at least 5-8mm into the timber, as shown.

3 Now tap the dowel into the holes and cut off flush with the surface, using a hacksaw blade. Now sand the entire piece to a smooth finish, paying particular attention to the cut dowel.

Cutting the bottles
4 Rest the glasscutter on the edge of the jig and press it firmly against the glass as you turn the bottle slowly to score a straight line, ending at your starting point.

5 Pour boiling water into the bottle to just pass the score line. Once the bottle is hot, spray cold water all along the score line while slowly rotating the bottle.

6 The bottle should shear neatly along the score line (it’ll help if you tap against the glass along the line). Lightly sand the edges of the bottles by polishing on carbide tungsten waterpaper.