Glass bottle lights part two: wiring.

This lamp is for my craft shed, but when I finished this project I was excited to make more and better ones. I found Vintage Wire and Supply which is like a little candy store for doing these bottle and jar lights.However, for this project I went to Home Depot and got some simple candelabra sockets (normal size bulbs don't fit in these bottles), some threaded nipples and hex nuts as well as a candelabra set foe the plug and switch since this one is going to be a lamp. Although I can still easier turn it into a fixture in the future. I had some lamp cord already, I used probably only two feet for these three IBC root beer glass bottle lights.

For tools, all you need is a wire cutter, wire stripper, and a drill with a bit the size of the threaded nipple. You will also need two wire nuts and a little bit of paint of your choosing.

First I put the lamp cord through the threaded nipple, then split and stripped the two ends. On mine, the ribbed goes to the silver screw on the socket and the one with the writing goes to the gold. Most lamp cords the writing strand is the hot which goes to the gold. First I threaded the nipple into the candelabra socket.  Now, you can skip the threaded nipple all together and just do wire with an underwriters knot and a strain relief at the top instead of a hex nut. I didn't want mine swinging around though.

I made a U shape with the stripped wire end and stuck it around the screw and tightened it. Once I saw what my wire length needed to be to reach the middle of my wood base with some room to spare, I cut it. Now the cut end can go through the bottle. The candelabra socket is the right size that the root beer bottles sit on it just right. I though the cardboard socket cover was horrible so I just put some brown Rustoleum on it before installing it back on.

I drilled holes the size of my threaded nipples in my finished reclaimed wood board I am using for the top of my light where the bottles will be. Mine was snug which was perfect. The hex nut goes on top here. Do this for all of them. Now separate and strip all the wire ends on top. You will need one more length of wire as well that will either be to attach to the one coming out of the ceiling for a fixture or like mine, to a switch and plug.

Since I have three glass bottle lights, I have four wires. Once separated and stripped, the hot (writing side) all go together with a wire nut. Then the other side (ribbed side on mine) all go together in another wiring nut.

Now if I was thinking, I would have turned my wood board into an open wood box because I can't flush mount mine. That is okay on mine since it will be high enough no one will see the top of it, but next time or if I do turn mine into a fixture, I will make sides for it of 1x1 inch strips of wood to hide the wires coming out of the top of it but still be able to mount it easily.

Wood signs

I didn't take a lot of pictures for this project because there is not much to it. You do need a router and a bit to do this. It could be a core box bit, v groove bit or straight bit. The core box and v groove gives it an extra dimension. Now I did one sign with a ruler and pencil measuring the top bottom and middle of the letters and giving each letter the same amount of space. The other sign I did freehand,  You can tell which is which.

All the wood used was just what other people had considered firewood. 

Routers are designed with the hole for viewing although you may need to bend down to see good. Wear safety glasses, you don't need flying bits in your eye. Just set the bit at a shallow depth and follow the lines. You can move the router pretty slowly to be accurate. I try to keep a moderate speed so I don't get wobbly. Just pick the router straight up each time and put it down slowly to cut away to the proper depth before moving again.

I sanded the signs and just used plain black acrylic paint with a paint brush. If you do get some outside your grooves, it washes off with water when wet. After that dries, just put some exterior clear polyurethane on it and figure out it you need mounting holes, string holes or a stake depending on where you want to display it. I made some stake ones to mark my trail through the berry patch and one hanging from twine as a gift to my sister for her new last name.

Halloween tombstone stakes

This is my first Halloween where I have a huge yard I can decorate. My decorations need to be out in the rain, who knows even snow, so not all decorations will work here in  the mountains. I don't want any fabric or even those fake cobwebs will probably be full of real cobwebs and definitely pine needles when Halloween is over.

I do have a lot of OSB plywood end pieces leftover from my shed roof so I decided to make some tombstones.

First I used the skill saw to cut a my plywood into tombstone sized pieces. Then I used the jigsaw to round the corners off. One of them I left square and did a crack design instead.

Next I put some brown latex paint on both sides. Did the backside first and then the front. Of course if you have gray or black that would work fine too.

Once the back side dried I screwed some wood stakes on, two screws each so I can pound them in if I need to. Once the front side dried I got some lighter spray paint and fogged it on the middle area.

Now is the fun part. I just did hand lettering on mine but it is not the greatest. I made up for my lack of straight letters by making up kooky names, descriptions and unreasonable birth and death dates. It was plain so I added crosses, floral patterns and skulls at the top to dress them up more since grave markers used to be extremely ornate.

I still did not think they were spooky enough so I threw some red acrylic paint on and couldn't get that blood stain look with a brush so just got my fingers in there and made some bloody finger prints and smears. Hey, I know it's not as realistic as I wanted but you can get a letter stencil at your local craft store and use that to make it much better.

I think an outline around the edge would give it more dimension too, but that might be for next year since I got so excited I stuck them in the ground already.

Glass bottle lights: Part one, breaking glass

This is part one because this is how to get the bottoms off of glass bottles to even start. I've seen so many awesome mason jar lights that I wanted to try my hand at it. You know from my earlier posts that I made a DIY  modern light fixture from an old kerosone fixture. This is similar but the multiple hanging lights gives some extra steps. Plus, you have to take the bottoms of the glass off or it will overheat with normal use.

After watching Youtube videos I thought it would be easy to take the glass bottoms off of bottles. Well it is, but it took me several failed attempts. First off, Corona bottles did not work for me, they don't break at the right point. I am using some IBC cream soda bottles in the pictures and 3 out of 4 came out great. Brown beer bottles work good too.

Second off, I bought a little pen type glass cutter off Ebay for about five dollars and made a jig by using two pieces of closet rod attached to a chunk of 2x4 to hold the glass bottles and be able to spin the bottle completely around in place. I hold the glass cutter to the bottle about a half inch up from the bottom (right above the dent on the IBC bottles) and spin the bottle around with my other hand to score it. This helps keep the glass from cracking farther up the bottle.

Now, I tied twine around my score line. About two or three times around is perfect. Tie it off and cut the extra. Now either pour on, or dunk the twine in lighter fluid. I have been keeping the twine on the bottle now, but my first times I wore gloves and dunked the twine and then put it back on.

Have a bucket of water handy filled up enough to be able to dunk your bottles half way in. Also have matches or a lighter ready.

Light the twine on fire, keeping the bottom up and slowly rotate the bottle around. When the bottom gets black, dunk it in the water. One time the bottom did pop off before I got it in the water, but usually as soon as the twine hits the water the bottom pops right off beautifully.

Like I said though, I had some failed attempts at first but once I got my first one I have been getting most of them off cleanly since.

This isn't it though. You now have a bottomless bottle but it is sharp. I used my orbital sander with some 150 grit on it and sanded away. It actually worked great which I was a little surprised by. It had a foggy look though so I followed up with some 400 grit wet and that made it look much better.

Easy necklace display stand

I've sold my jewelry at art walks and had a cool branch with screws in it that I set on my table and have the necklaces dangle off. I wanted  more professional, less back-breaking way for customers to view my necklaces. Instead of spending money on a bunch of velvet busts or glass cases, I wanted something more me, more rustic modern.

I took a scrap piece of 1/4 inch plywood I kept in case I got inspired to paint on it and then some scrap pieces of wood in my cut pile.  I screwed through the plywood a small chunk of a 2x4 at the angle I wanted my plywood. Then I added this little scrap 2x2 piece as a support so handsy people won't knock over the whole display.

Now I have a mess of outdoor upholstery fabric I fell in love with and had upholstered a rocking chair with, but I think burlap would be super cute too. Or if you want to class it up, velvet or satin would be great too.
I stapled the fabric from the back and hammered the staples after so they wouldn't stick out.

I took two of my screws out of my branch and replaced them with 3 inch screws with the same head. These go all the way through the branch and attach to the plywood. And that is it, really! I arranged my necklaces nicely so next time am out selling I can just grab the whole thing.

I have some of these up on my Zibbet page to sell but the others I don't so my customers get even more variety and a better deal in person.

I probably should make one more too so I can bring a lot of inventory.