And you thought empty wine bottles were just for the recycling bin. Leave it to Plastolux to inspire us and demonstrate just how easy this bottle cutting and etching project can be.
DIY: Cut and Etch Wine Bottles
And you thought empty wine bottles were just for the recycling bin. Leave it to Plastolux to inspire us and demonstrate just how easy this bottle cutting and etching project can be.
Tyler Goodro, the creator behind Plastolux, is boundless with his many DIY and hack projects. This time around he decided to try some glass cutting using wine bottles. Living in the Washington wine country gave him plenty of access to empty wine bottles and he picked up a glass cutting kit on Ebay.
Using Ephrem’s Olde Time Bottle Cutter kit Tyler was able to score the cleaned wine bottle. The bottle then goes into an ice water bath to separate the two pieces. After some sanding and smoothing the glass is ready to etch. Tyler has access to a sandblaster but glass etching kits can be found in craft stores like Michaels.
Tyler makes some great suggestions and additions to this process so be sure to read his step-by-step process. Additionally he suggests not using these glasses for drinking glasses as they still have quite an edge to them. If you feel that this DIY project may be over your head (or just don’t have the time) you can purchase one from his Etsy shop (priced between $5.00 and $12.00).
Tyler has an extensive collection of his own DIY projects as well as other people’s designs on his blog, DIY Modern. And be sure to read more about the man behind the blog on Apartment Therapy.
Image credit: Kim Fetrow
Comments (9)
Daily Email
Top Tours
- Oksana and Tim's House in the Woods
- Ariana and Andreas' Downey Street Tree House
- Katie's Inside and Outside Mission Loft
- Emily and Meeko's Sunny First Apartment
- The Wilkinson Residence
Top Posts
Past Events
© 2010 Apartment Therapy
These are awesome!
view modernguy's profile
Actually the edges on these are wet sanded smooth, so you could use them as drinking glasses. I just think there are cooler drinking glasses out there.
view plastolux's profile
I have some glasses made from wine bottles that a family friend DIY'd! I'd never heard of anyone doing that, so I think this is a cool post. The man who made mine is a carpenter so he used some sort of glass cutter to cut the bottles and then just used a sander to smooth the edges. I use them as drinking glasses and have had no problems with the edges, which are quite smooth. I thought it was a great idea, and a creative way to reuse something that is commonly thrown into the recycling. Mine aren't etched, and they are all the olive green bottle type, but they work great as glasses and I think they look cool too.
view livc's profile
I really like those colors for drinking glasses. The shape is quite pleasing, too. *thumbs up*
view rangamboa's profile
No, thank you, I like my lips too much. You can get much nicer drinking glasses for next to nothing.
view ladymantle's profile
Cutting glass bottles is NOT easy and requires a TON of practice to get it right! It is easy, however, to make a cracked, frustrating mess out of wine bottles. It's best to practice on thinner glassed beer bottles first, to get the hang of scoring.
view cogey88's profile
cogey88, you are correct I recycled/wasted quite a few until I got the hang of it.
view plastolux's profile
I think the sandblaster works way better than those glass etching kits--look how even that ring is.
view FantasticMrFaux's profile
pretty, i love glass :)
view Lizzykewl's profile