Glass Bottle Cutting

Source: Crafty Scrappy Happy via Victoria on Pinterest

Something I've seen pinned and re-pinned a lot is a project using yarn and fingernail polish remover to turn glass bottles into candle holders. 

I get nervous about things involving fire, but one afternoon I decided to try it (with my boyfriend on hand to supervise of course). I was disappointed with my how it turned out, but I'm planning to try again soon, and hopefully I'll be able to share better results with you.

I love projects that only call for things I've got around the house. It took less than 2 minutes to gather all the items I needed, and I was ready to go. 

The entire project probably didn't take more than 5 minutes itself. 

The first step is to wrap the yarn 5 - 6 times around the bottle and tie it, so you've got the proper size. Then the yarn is dipped in the nail polish remover and slipped back on the bottle. This is where I made my first mistake. I was nervous about the nail polish remover being on the bottle closer to where I was going to be holding it, so I tried to rinse it off, but my yarn got wet and when I tried to light it the fire just wouldn't catch.

So I took off the yarn and started fresh. This time I wiped the bottle down with a dry paper towel instead of trying to rinse it.

Now it's the fun (and completely nerve-wracking) part. Holding the bottle by one end, light the yarn. It should ignite pretty easily, since it's soaked in the polish remover. The flames do get decently big at this point, but nothing to worry about. I made sure to hold it over the sink of cold water just to be safe, but didn't have any problems.

This is where I think I messed up the project. You're supposed to rotate the flame for around 20 seconds. I held it for long enough, but had trouble rotating it well, so it didn't seem to heat the bottle evenly. After rotating you immediately immerse the bottle in the sink of cold water. You'll hear a cracking sound, but it's just the bottle separating at the point where it got heated. 

I'd expected it to be right on the yarn, but it was actually about an inch up, which made sense when I thought about it, but didn't cross my mind in time to make sure to get it even.

This is the best picture I got to show how jagged it is. One side is almost completely smooth and straight, but the other half is pretty uneven. I definitely think not rotating it well was my problem. 

I'm anxious to try this again now that I know how to hopefully do it right. 

Has anyone else tried this? Were you more successful than I was?