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Friday, 9 November 2012

An Upcycling Dilemma

There is a problem with using recycled materials to create with.  And the problem is, it is absolutely missing the point to go and buy something new just because you want to recycle the packaging, or in my case, the bottle.

My lovely husband braved the sidelong looks and smuggled an empty 330ml Ty-Nant water bottle out of a restaurant for me a while back, and since then it has been sitting on the shelf looking so lovely and blue, waiting for me to do something with it.  This week, I did.

Upcycled bottle vase

The bottle is interesting because it is not, as I expected it to be, blue glass, but clear glass with with a blue enamel coating.  Which means that, with a lot of patience, I could sandblast the blue away altogether to get a two-tone effect (I have to admit I stopped where I did because I ran out of patience, but I think it's enough!).  And the result is just so much better than I thought it could be.

I do have several of the larger 750ml size bottles which have been collected for me waiting to be played with; they appear to be blue right through; we shall see.  I'd love to have more of these little ones to work with but at the moment I am resisting popping over to Wales just to stock up... buying such small bottles of sparkling water really is a bit of an extravagance... isn't it?

5 comments:

  1. That is beautiful, what a great effect!

    I wonder if you could see if there are any local restaurants that serve it and see if they'd be willing to save you some empties?

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  2. That is a beautiful bottle. I love what you have done.



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  3. stunning - and I think Louise has a great point. maybe if you offered them a couple as centrepieces - and a stack of your business cards???

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  4. Thanks! I don't think any of the restaurants round here serve it, this one came all the way from South Wales. Welsh restaurants are much more likely to serve a Welsh water, I will have to keep my eyes open when I'm there.

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  5. I love what you've done to it. I have a red one here that I smuggled out of a restaurant too :-)

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Helen Smith, artist and maker in glass, print and stitch.