Wine Bottle Hanging Lantern

by l8nite in Craft > Reuse

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Wine Bottle Hanging Lantern

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This is my interpretation of a couple of projects I've seen, primarily on Instructables, the 2 I could find are here...
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-use-a-wet-tile-saw-to-cut-glass-bottles/
https://www.instructables.com/id/Hanging-Liquor-Bottle-Candle-Lamp/
If I've used your information and didn't credit you, please let me know so I can correct it.

 I've found that a regular tile sawblade in the wetsaw doesn't make a very clean cut but it does work. I tried several ideas for the wire and candle support before deciding on the one shown. Recycled used giant sparkler wire from New Years was ok but kind of overkill, the bottom of an aluminum can as a candle support worked but was to much work for the final result. But enough of what DIDN'T work.

Materials and Tools

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Materials:
recycled wine bottles, you can also use liqueur, beer or water(glass) bottles
found electrical wire
left over votive and tea-lite candles from Halloween

 Tools:

 I borrowed a wetsaw from a friend
 SAFETY GOGGLES !  <<<< Cutting glass is dangerous to your eyes regardless of how you cut it
 Pliers
 Wire cutters
 Needlenose pliers
 Razorknife

The Bottles

sorry, no pics of cutting the bottles, it's probably best to remove the labels before cutting, I didn't and paid the price, luckily it was just a cut glove! Cut a 1/2 inch or so off the bottom of the bottle, if you have emery paper or wet sanding paper, clean up your cut

Forming the Wire

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cut and strip approximately 3 feet of your wire.
 Starting at one end of a single wire, form a coil approximately 1 1/2 inces across and then make a 90degree bend.
Measure up about 4inches from the coil and make another 90 degree bend towards the center of the coil.
Make another 90 degree bend pointing upwards from approximately the middle of the coil.
Eyeball where the shoulder of the bottle begins and make a couple of loops in your wire (this keeps the wire from pulling up to far.) I put another bend in the wire loop because I made it a little to wide.
Make any extra/decorative bends you may need to put the coil about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the bottle

Wire Part 2

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Remember that 90degree bend 4 inches above the coil? Place that bend at the bottom of the bottle with the wire extending through the neck of the bottle and make a 90degree bend, basically repeating what was done for the inside ( this keeps the bottle from moving up to high) and then form a hook at the very top. Sorry some of these pics didn't turn out.
 The more observent may notice I started with a clear bottle and now Im using a green bottle, that's because I only had clear bottles left uncut !

Hang and Light

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You can use the wire hook to hang the lantern from a small branch or for a bigger branch use a rope or chain and attach the hook to that.
 Slide the bottle up the wire and place either a votive sized candle or tea-lite candle on the coil and light it , then slide the bottle back down.
 WARNING : Votive size candles make the bottle HOT to the touch, tea-lites only make the glass warm (experience typing here)