recycled glass beads?

[BellaBean]

I know that a few of you make beads from wine bottles, beer bottles, etc. I have a few friends that are forever giving me bottles for various craft items... so I'd like to make beads with them too.

What is the best way? Break the bottles up and grab the chunks with pliers and use the chunks directly??? Heat the pieces and try to form some rods first????

Any ideas would be helpful. I plan on experimenting this weekend.

[houptdavid]

Break the bottle into chunks, put in kiln and turn on kiln to preheat, grab a chunk and heat in flame and pull thick stringers

[blong2001]

I make sure that the bottles are well cleaned, put them in three grocery bags and hit on my patio. Then pick out the pieces that I want to use and throw them into the kiln!

[BellaBean]

That's what I was thinking David. Thanks for the input! I appreciate it! It'll be nice to do something with wine bottles other than just slump them!!!

[BellaBean]

Thanks Bethany!

[cherylkroe]

What temperature would you anneal these beads at. What COE would the glass be if it was a wine bottle etc? Very interested in trying this also.

[houptdavid]

From Warm Glass for slumped bottles... soak at 1030F for 20-30 min then 100 dph to around 850. Bottle glass anneals anywhere from 1050 to 940 and from what I can find COE is from the 80's to 100

[cherylkroe]

Thanks so much. That gets me close and I should be able to experiment from that info. I am sure that you are correct in that a wide variety of coe exist in the commercial market. Until I read this thread I had no clue how to even start to experiment with this method. I look forward to trying recycle this type of glass.

[tweeky clothespin]

I have lots of wine bottles! I have been feeling odd about just putting them into my recycling bin. I mean it seems like a waste of good glass. Thanks for the information.

[houptdavid]

If your kiln is big enough, SLUMP them into cheese trays

[tweeky clothespin]

Unfortunately my kiln isn't that big :(

[Karen Hardy]

For my recycled beads, I use a regular soft glass annealing
schedule. It works great!

You might want to search LE - there have been many threads
started on making beads from recycled glass here, with
lots of great info.

[Flamin' Francesca]

Just for inspiration, try Brownin Heilman's website. http://www.ghostcow.com/

[BellaBean]

Thanks for the help and ideas everyone!

[Kris Schaible]

cori, you can also cut them into strips.....

[Torched Art]

I plan on blogging about this.

I cut mine into strips. I use the top pf the bottle as a wine stopper display at shows.

I annealed the rods, they were shocky when I made some beads before annealing.

I also saved the labels to use as display later.

206023

[ben david]

One advantage of cutting bottles into strips is that you can use a strip to test your annealing temperature.

Prop the strip against the wall of the annealer. When the strip just barely distorts you are a bit above the correct annealing temp/cycle.

You can also test different colored glass for compatible expansion by laying strips upon each other, and fusing them in the annealer.

Save the glass containers of products you use a lot - it's more likely that the glass came from the same factory, if not the same lot, and will be compatible.