It’s probably about as eco-friendly as glass bead making can be – and what a fun idea to be able to sport part of a reclaimed bottle around your neck — albeit a small part!

Photo courtesy of Jesse Therrien

So what to do? Where to start?
(this post assumes you are already a glass bead maker)

First things first, be aware that the coe of bottle glass usually falls somewhere between 83 and 90, so if you are used to soft glass you will find it slower to melt and thicker in consistency.

One big word COMPATIBILITY – if you don’t know the exact COE of your glass, don’t try mixing it with anything else — unless you want to experiment and don’t mind wasting a lot of work. Stick with one bottle at a time, I’ve found that being limited to one colour really makes me think more about the style and shape of the bead.

If you are desperate to add some other kind of embellishment — try silver foil, or maybe a little frit on the surface of the bead.

Here’s a link on cutting a bottle using a glass cutter (once you’ve got the top and bottom cut off you can try scoring strips with the cutter) — personally I don’t seem to have much luck using a glass cutter and usually end up wielding a hammer instead!

BE CAREFUL!! (what you learned as a child about broken glass being sharp is true!)

I place the cleaned bottle with labels removed into a plastic bag, then wrap the bag with several layers of newspaper. Take it outside onto a hard surface like a sidewalk and whack it with a hammer. Wearing safety glasses is a GOOD thing to do! Do this at your own risk!

So.. now I have a bag full of bits of broken glass and several neighbours who think I’ve lost my marbles.

How on earth do you turn a jagged piece of glass into a pretty bead? I’ve tried several methods from holding the glass with my fingers (it gets too hot), to attaching the glass to a punti (it popped off) to using an adjustable wrench to hold the glass (too big and heavy) – my favourite is actually using a pair of tweezers that can lock in place so that I don’t have to constantly apply pressure to stop the glass from slipping around.

• Smaller pieces of glass are easier to melt than larger ones (and less likely to pop and shatter).
• Bottle glass is more shocky than 104coe glass – heat it slowly OR preheat it before putting it into the flame.
• It takes time to feel comfortable holding and melting an odd shaped piece of glass – be patient and give yourself some credit.
• Introduce the thinnest, pointiest end of the glass into the flame first.

Personally I find this too big of a chunk to work with comfortably

Ahhh that's MUCH better!

At first I got no pleasure at all from this (aside from the smashing part), the melting of the glass was like torture, awkward, slow and unpleasant.  But I persevered and have now reached a point where I can say I actually quite enjoy it!  There is a different kind of skill that comes with working only one colour of glass, and something with a different consistency than you are used to.  Shape comes much more into play, and since most bottle glass is transparent you’ll probably find that the end result can have some lovely reflective qualities under different light.

Of course, just like regular beads, the bottle glass beads should be annealed.  I use my regular annealing schedule and haven’t run into any problems, but if someone knows something different please let me know.

Beads from Bottles - recycled glass

I use a Nortel Mega Minor torch and an EX-15 oxycon.  I tried melting bottle glass with a hothead once, it was an excruciatingly slow process and I ended up with a very small bead ;o)  If you are patient it can be done!

I’m really interested to see what other bead makers are creating with recycled glass — if you make something I’d love to see it/them!