Cassie: I always love to see your roses. They are gorgeous, and I love what you’ve done with the colors in this one! Well done : )
Alexandra: I adore your post. Words are not always necessary when one is so impassioned about one’s work, especially with newspapers and dragons!
As for my craft this week, I got glass bottle (6). Cassie may remember that I originally also chose bottlecaps (4, I believe). While I had access to a vast amount of bottlecappage, I decided that for my chosen project, bottlecaps would look tacky and “undergrad,” and I wanted to be all classy and stuff. So I went with a lone glass bottle.
::Disclaimer: This description is going to involve a lot of references to Meghan and the hardware store where she works. I also neglected to take in-process pictures… Hopefully my words will be illustration enough!::
To procure my glass bottle, I bought myself a bottle of yellow tail (lowercase on purpose, as per brand name—it drives me crazy, too) moscato wine and enjoyed it over several nights’ worth of dinners. I recommend this wine. It was cheap and tasty, if you like dessert wines. I’m sure it would be scoffed at by a connoisseur.
Once I finished drinking the wine, I removed the bottle’s labels with some Goo-Gone I bought at the hardware store. (I also recommend Goo-Gone for quick gooey-stuff removal.) Next I waited several days until I could get back home to the hardware store and the girlfriend who knows enough about how to make things that she could help me.
With the help of a particularly lovely hardware store employee, I procured the following objects:
1 cork big enough to stop up my bottle (it was originally screw-top and therefore corkless)
1 screw-nipple-thing (I swear that’s what they’re called. Technical term.)
1 lamp kit thing (another technical term)
1 electrical cord with plug
With the help of that same lovely hardware store employee, I [read: she] drilled a hole on the side of the bottle near the bottom. This was a far more arduous process than one might think at first glance--it requires a special drill bit, patience, wet and dry paper towels, and a little bit of masking tape. The drill was also used to put a hole through the center of the cork big enough to allow for the nipple.
I then ran the cord up through the bottle, so that the plug was on the bottom and the wire ends were at the top. I ran these ends up through the nipple that was inside the cork.
After some internet consultation, HSEG (Hardware Store Employee Girlfriend) and I connected the wires to the lamp kit thing (where the bulb would screw in). We then screwed the lamp kit thing to the nipple and pushed the cork into the bottle’s neck.
A trip to Goodwill provided a lampshade of exactly the perfect size, shape, and colors for less than $1. This was placed over the lamp kit thing, and a light bulb was affixed in much the same way as light bulbs are often affixed to light fixtures.
The lamp was plugged in and turned on. Et voilà, the wine-bottle lamp was born!
I think I may add a piece of paper, rolled around the cord, inside the bottle. That’s the magic of having the cork easily removable. I can put a message in my bottlelamp!
This wonderful creation has found a perfect home on my dining table. The colors fit exactly with the other objects on the table, from silk flowers to chopstick collection. I’m quite thrilled with the way it turned out!
Lamp turned off:
Lamp turned on:
You may notice in the corner of these photos some green and blue stick-looking things. These are chopsticks shaped like light sabers. Just thought I'd point that out...
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