Rainbowttle

This coming summer, I've made some good resolutions : drink !

My son advised me to always have a bottle of water near me. That's a good idea.

Am I going to buy one of those pretty, fashionable bottles made in ... ?

No, I'm going to create my own gourd with cheerful colours that I can customize according to my mood: the Rainbowttle.

• A glass bottle with several compatible caps.
• Tape.
• A sheet of plastic
• Seal for windows
• Epoxy resin and dyes + several disposable containers + gloves and protections.
• Several small silcone moulds (cup cake)
• Playdough
• A sandblasting machine
• 2 large garbage bags

What if I don't have a sanding machine ?

If you don't have a sanding machine, instead you can make strips with tape or other patterns to create reserves that you can fill with coloured resin. Be careful, the resin will flow, so make sure you have a small reserve. Use intense colors as the resin will be very thin.

Prepare the bottle
Use the tape to draw patterns on the bottle. The glass will remain clear where the tape is placed. Everywhere else it will be frosted. Electric tape resists well to sandblasting. This is not the case with glued paper: I made a test to glue a laser-cut drawing on the bottle with a nice birds pattern : it survived about 5 seconds to sanding - see the first photo !

Then I made a much simpler pattern with tape.I decided to frost the bottom of the bottle to ensure a good adherence of the resin.

Next time I'll equip my CNC with a vinyl cutter.

Sandblast the bootle

Wear a mask and glasses.

If like me you don't have a real sanding station but just a compressor equipped with a sanding kit you can create a mini sanding station: Take a big garbage bag, drill a hole of about 2cm diameter and put some tape to reinforce it. The nozzle of the sander will pass through this hole. Place your bottle in the bag. Close the bag.

Now you can hold the bottle from the outside the bag with one hand and with the other hand just pass the nozzle through the small hole and blast.

OK you won't see anything, but this way you won't have sand everywhere and especially at the end you can get the sand back for the next time. Working just with your hands as if you were blind is an interesting excercice !

Blast regulary until all parts are well frosted.

When everything is fine, remove the tape and wash the bottle.

Prepare a mold for the bottom of the bottle

I wanted a thick blue bottom to figure the sea.

I used window sealant to create a certain thickness for the resin. I put several strips of it on so that I could place the plastic sheet easily arround the bootle.

Strap the bottle with the plastic sheet. This will be the mold. Also, thanks to this sheet, the bottle can stand upside down, unless your bottle is too high. In this case, provide a support so that the bottle can stand upright.

Make sure to make the joint as tight as possible so that the resin doesn't leak. It's almost impossible to remove resine on frosted glass.

Prepare and pour the resin

Wear gloves and protection.

Mix as indicated on the bottle. It depends on the brands. Mix well (5 minutes). Divide the preparation into several small containers for the different colours. Mix each colour well.

I kept some of the resin that I lightly colored in blue. I poured alternately this base and small quantities of the different colors. The idea was to create waves to represent the sea. The result is not really convincing but it was also my first experience with the resin. I'll do better next time! Fill until the resin covers about 0.5 to 1cm above the bottom of the bottle. Beware the resin does not support too much thickness especially if it's hot.

The idea was to have several different caps to change according to the mood of the day.
I made a "Sky" cap. The idea was to represent the sky with black and white clouds using mica powders to color the resin. The bottle is frosted: this represents the rain and if you fill the bootle with orange juice and strawberry or violet syrup then you get a rainbow. The result is nice but the colors of the cap don't mix well with the bottle 's color.

Fortunatly I also made a pink and golden cap to make it more girly. My daughter would look at me with black eyes if she could hear me ! This one is just perfect.

Prepare the mould for the cap.

I used silicon cup cake moulds. I never make cupcakes, I might as well serve them! Fill the cap with playdough and put a little bit of silicone to stick it to the bottom of the mold. This step should be done carefuly so the cap is strictly horizontal and no resine gets inside the cap.

Prepare a mold for each cap. It can be nice to have different shapes of moulds.

Prepare the resin and fill the moulds

In the same way as before, I separated the resin in different small pots to put the colors. I used mica powder to get the shine. But I also kept a transparent base, slightly colored respectively in blue and pink.

Fill the moulds by alternating the base and the mica colors until the cap is about 5mm to 1cm higher than the base.

As the temperatures are high today and my resine is used with a little too much thickness I put the mold in cold water with ice cubes to prevent resine getting too hot.

As I had some resine left I made 3 jewels to be worn with my bootle. I used contact lens container.

Unmold everything.

If the resine has flowed (specialy under the cap) cut it.

Assemble and admire !