how the wine bottles turned out

you may have read my post last week about my glass adventure

now that Mother's Day is past, 

I can show the results

(these were gifts)

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these are the bottles before firing:

(left) balsamic vinegar bottle           (center) bacardi rum bottle                 (right) run of the mill wine bottle

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the process 

(known as "slumping) 

involves heating the glass bottle in a kiln up to 1400 degrees

and then gradually bringing the temperature back down

doing this flattens the bottle nicely:

(left) balsamic vinegar bottle                              (center) wine bottle                              (right) rum bottle

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the fun part was decorating them:

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for the rum bottle, I decoupaged the reverse side with a postcard image and old book text 

then I added the faux sailor knot around the top:

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for the wine bottle and the vinegar bottle,

I added copper wire and beads around the bottle neck

and I also wire wrapped a cheese knife

the wine bottle makes a perfect cheese plate:

if this looks like fun to you,

look for local ceramic or stained glass shops

sometimes the "paint your own" ceramics places have classes just for this

it's fun - and makes a great gift!