Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Plastic Bottle Chandelier Tutorial

How to make it!

The ingredients:
-50 plastic bottles (any kind, I especially like Coke bottles)
-Floral wire
-Natural jute
-20 gauge wire
-Wiring kit
-Light bulb
-Spray paint (I used Valspar paint in a gloss)

Tools:
-Wire cutters
-Hot glue gun
-Scissors
-X-acto Knife

Total Cost: less than $20 


1) Collect plastic bottles. It can be any kind and size! I used about 50.

 
2) Peel off labels & cut in half. I used an X-acto knife.
 
3) Cut into a flower shape. I used scissors.

 
4) Fold down "petals".
  
A collection of pre-painted flowers

5) Spray paint flowers color of choice 



6) Create a wire circle and hot glue natural jute to it. This will be what supports the flowers.
 
 

7. Using flower arrangement wire attach each flower to the wire circle.


 
Floral wire
 
Two ways to attach the wire: 
either wrapping around the bottle neck, or hot gluing onto the bottom.
 
 
The flower circle in progress


 
The first layer
8) Repeat these steps for subsequent layers. I made 3 layers, each smaller than the one before it.
9) I used natural jute to attach the fixture to a hook on the ceiling. I strung a light through the center. I also used natural jute to hold the layers together. I just tied it in four locations.
 

 The final fixture.


Please let me know if there are any questions! You can always email me @ davidandcarolineparker@gmail.com !

A skanky thank you and shout out to the wonderful employees at Helix for collecting bottles for me!





21 comments:

Jenn said...

Thanks for the tutorial! I love your creation!
Have a fabulous day!

Heather - Dollarstorecrafts.com said...

Yay, awesome! i updated my linked article on Dollar Store Crafts to point to the tutorial too! :) Sweet!

Kari Heatherly said...

Thanks for posting the tutorial..I had seen the anthropologie pic but they weren't very clear on how to make it! It's beautiful!

kittybutt said...

Caroline, I LOVE the way the plastic bottle chandelier came out! I am so impressed! It looks fantastic.

Patti @ Pandoras Box said...

Great tutorial...was wondering how the bottles were cut...so clever!

Kaysi @ Keeping it Simple said...

I love this! Thanks for leaving me the link. I already know that I'm going to feature it for next Motivate Me Monday. I'm going to have to start collecting the bottles now!
Kaysi
Keeping It Simple

Recaptured Charm said...

Pure genius. It looks totally amazing!

PamelaDraper said...

so neat! what kind of lights are used and how are they attached to the circle?

Eliza said...

That is very cool!!! I am totally impressed! I want to make one now!!

The Single Nester said...

Holy cow! This is awesome! Just lovely!

Loonie said...

That's impressive! I have to start collecting water bottles, pronto!

Its So Very Cheri said...

Google wasn't hiding the pictures this time.
GREAT JOB.

Cheri

Stephanie said...

I love this! My daughter has a room just about the same color blue as the one you use, and her curtains have the same color blue with yellow and green stripes so I am thinking this just might be perfect for her room! Thank you so much for sharing!

Anonymous said...

I'm trying this out, with some small changes. Couldn't find any spray paint here, so I'm painting them with acrylics. Held a few of the flowers against a light and they have this cool translucent, eclectic effect. And instead of layers, I going to attempt a sort of spiral and glue the flowers on that, and suspend two or three bulbs. Oh, and I've cut the petals shorter, using only the 500 ml bottles (I have a project in mind for the remaining bottle!). Gosh, I hope it works out!

haley said...

Yay, found it! Can't wait to make this! i have about 20 water bottles so far, i'll probably make this in about 4 days. I'm wondering, what watt light bulb should be used? since it's plastic, does it have issues with getting too hot/melting next to the light bulb if it's on for too long?

shalynn said...

great job! what a unique and fantastic project!

Park Taylor said...

I made this the Tutorial of the Day on The Crafty Artisan! I posted a photo and referred my readers to your web site for the tutorial.

You can see it at http://wiserunning.com/blog/?p=427

Happy Crafting!

momma G said...

This is so clever, I love it. I might actually try this one. Kudos

Nikiwe S. said...

Owesome!
Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

great project to start and share with my staffs:) thanks to you:)

Jennifer Erwin said...

Very creative idea. we can also use plastic cans on making table designs. We need to recycle every trash that we have right now to save our planet.