Wickedly Wild Recycled Wine

When life gets complicated....I wine.

Graphic Designer ~ Mia Tanner

Beads & Wine...so fine!

The Process of making Recycled Wine Beads:

Step 1: Drink the Wine of course - the fun part for me! (I don't drink alone much so that means I "get to invite" friends over for some girl time! Party time.)

Step 2: Find a love crazed fool who likes to bash glass- (This is a good project for the husband who is sitting in front of the TV or the lazy teenage son downloading viruses on your only PC!)

Step 3: Gather up the little pieces without cutting yourself and put them in a pile. (Good luck with this step- My hands look like Helter Skelter got a hold of me...over and over again)

Step 4: Heat each little piece of wine bottle in the 2000 degree flame & melt down to a very hot blob. (Beware of flying, extremely hot glass bullets- I have a ton of glass tattoos I'm quite proud of on my face, neck and chest - wear them with pride!)

Step 5: Pull the glass blob into long skinny stringers of glass. (These always seem to hit my leg, floor or shatter into pieces - repeat back to step 1-not a bad thing to do)

Step 6: Perfect, now you are ready to make some recycled beads. (If you survive steps 1-5 you might want to go have another glass of wine to celebrate!!)

Step 7: Heat glass slowly as its very thermal shocky and usually flies back and hits me in the eye. (Thank goodness for those goofy glasses ya gotta wear!!)

Step 8: Start melting & wrapping the glass around the skinny little steel mandrel. (This part is tricky- kind of like melting hot honey and dropping it on a 2mm mandrel and wishing it would stay on. Problem is it usually falls on to your table and catches your workbench on fire- Keep fire extinguisher handy)

Step 9: Proceed to make a round, even bead. (Good luck with that! May cause you to swear and then go back to step one- not a bad thing.)

Step 10: Carefully get the mandrel/bead to the kiln without tripping over the "couch potato" dog on the floor. (never fails -  the dog sleeps right under my chair - after getting stepped on 300 times you would think the dog would get a clue?)

Step 11: Now soak the mandrel/bead in the kiln for 8-10 hours and really blow your electric bill. (I finally bought stock into the electrical company - seemed the only way to slightly recover the outrageous amount of money I am continually throwing away!)

Step 12: Go to bed as its way past your bedtime (real work is in less than 4 hours away) and the "bead poop" will be ready to ream out in the morning. (Absolutely the worst part about making beads - Cleaning the bead release clay out of the inside of the bead. I can't even pay my kids to do it!)

Step 13: Now it's time to figure out what the heck to do with the cute little recycled beads that did not crack throughout the process. (Jewelry making 101-Start saving your money or rob a bank to get enough funds to buy silver beads, chain, findings, wire etc! Warning-even more addictive than buying glass)

So please enjoy your recycled wine beads and know I'm trying to do my part to save the planet!

Disclaimer: Please do not drink and flame at the same time- I can show you my lovely burns to prove it!