There isn’t much else other than wine that I love more than a good craft. I love making things, working with my hands and the satisfaction of knowing that I made something out of nothing.
A byproduct of being a huge wino is that you end up with a LOT of empty wine bottles.
One of my favorite souvenirs to take home with me from a visit to a winery is a candle made from one of their bottles! But what about those special bottles or the ones with the cool labels that you can’t visit?
Enter: let’s learn how to cut my own bottles and make the candles myself!
How To Cut Wine Bottles
Making candles is actually super easy. Cutting the wine bottles is hit or miss. Sometimes it works perfect and other times you get bad cracks in the glass for no reason.
I bought this bottle cutter off of Amazon. There was a really handy youtube video attached that really shows you how to cut the bottles which you can find here, but I’ll highlight for you below
Place you bottle on the cutter and VERY slowly start to turn the glass until a light line has formed in a ring around the bottle. Be sure not to let your hands shake when moving the bottle. If you don’t get a clean line then you might as well toss the bottle because it won’t crack properly.
Once you have your line, boil a pot of hot water. Once boiled, place your bottle in the sink and slowly pour the boiling water over the fault line you created until it’s evenly heated.
Next, turn on the faucet and swiftly shock the bottle by running cold tap water of the same spot on the bottle. With luck, it’ll crack on the first try and the bottle should break evenly right on the line you drew. If not, repeat the process of heating the bottle and shocking with cold water until it cracks.
Once you have your broken bottle, throw a strip of sanding paper in a baking sheet with some water (so you don’t kick glass dust up!) and sand the bottle in circular motions until smooth
Let the bottle/label dry and then you are ready to make a candle!
How To Make Candles Out Of Wine Bottle
Yay! Candle time! I buy all my candle supplies from Candle Science, which is where all my suggestions will be from for this tutorial, but there are plenty of other sites you can choose from if you desire. Here is the video tutorial that I watched to teach myself.
I went with GW 464 wax because I was looking for something that did not contain paraffin as I’ve read it is not good to breath in when burning., but do your research because there are tons of wax options
You can choose what size wick you need with this handy wick guide based on the size of your bottle.
Before you start, throw your bottles in the oven at a super low temp and leave until ready to pour. This will help ensure that the wax cools at the same speed from top to bottom.
My rule of thumb when adding fragrance to wax is 10% fragrance to the amount of wax you have. So, if you’re making a 12oz candle, I would add 1.2 oz fragrance. Hopefully that makes sense!
Alright. We have our wax measured, we have the fragrances measured. Time to mix!
Add your pot of wax to a pot of simmering water and stir until the wax has fully melted. Use a candy thermometer to check that the temp is around 170-180 degrees.
Remove the pot of wax and let cool to about 130. Then, add your fragrance and stir for a few minutes.
At this point, Take your bottle out of the oven and add your wick. Slowly pour the wax into the bottle and make sure the wick is held in place so that it’s centered
Let cool completely and then trim the wick to ¼ of an inch. Wait at least 24hrs and up to a week before you light!
If you made a candle of your own, i would love to see! Post a pic in the comments or tag me on Instagram @hayleyscellar!
ITEMS YOU WILL NEED
