Leaf and Droplet Glass Donuts

recycled glass chime

A lot of bottles get cut up around here, somewhere around 60 a week, and I’ve never been able to figure out what to do with the shoulder section of the bottles.  I usually just pitch it into the city glass recycling system, which is fine I suppose.  But it would be nice if I could just use them up.

recycled glass bottle shoulder

So, I spent some time cutting these lonely little pieces into different shapes to see if I can use them for anything, and this is what I came up with.  Depending on which way you string them, these shapes can be used as either a leaf or a droplet.  I’m planning to use the blue ones as droplets and the earth tones as leaves.

cut bottle pieces

Shoulder pieces of bottles

Here’s a selection of pieces that have been hanging around the shop.  I drew a tear drop/ leaf shape on the inside of the glass as a cutting line:

fused glass leaf donuts

Marked leaf shapes

Drawing on the inside was kind of tricky, next time I’m going to draw on the outside.  However, it’s easier to cut on the inside, so I did that:

cut leaf/droplet shapes

cut droplet shapes

From this angle they mostly still look round, but it you look at that green one you’ll get a good idea of what I’m talking about.  Then I fused them:

Fused recycled glass donuts

Fused leaf/drop donuts

And then I used them to accent this lovely piece that is made with a leaf bottle bottom mold and the tutorial about fusing loops into bottle bottoms.

leafchimetree

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