The Making of Stuff - Page 3 of 4

Cutting Corona bottles with fire and string actually works!

So I brought 10 (empty) Corona bottles home from work to try cutting glass like I have seen people do on Pinterest. I checked Youtube and found this how to cut glass tutorial. My brother came over to help and off we went.

Materials needed

some glass bottles or jars to cut
cotton string
lighter or matches
ice to make ice cold water
acetone (nailpolish remover)

We couldn’t get it to work at first

We started out with a wine bottle to experiment and see if it would work, but we could not get it to work at all. My brother was getting tired of trying and told me the youtube video was fake, but I persisted. Then the astronaut boyfriend came over, looked at the video and told us we needed more fire.

How we finally did make cutting glass with fire and string to work

We finally did get it to work due to 3 things we did differently. We used more fire, colder water and changed to cotton string.

We changed the string we used to cotton string. So we soaked the string in acetone, and then tied it around the bottles in the place where we wanted to break it. Turns out the bottle won’t break exactly where you put the string, but slightly above and below the string, so keep this in mind when tying the string. For the corona bottles we tried to get the cut right under the bottle neck, just before it gets smaller. Unfortunately the glass is thicker here, so we had some trouble, and we did not get perfect cuts every time.

Then we needed a lot more fire. At first we just lit the acetone string on fire and let it burn out before we put the bottle in the cold water, and it didn’t work. But when we found some bigger matches and just kept the match burning under the bottle and the string while slowly turning the bottle, we got a lot more fire and heat.

And lastly we needed the water to be a lot colder. Unfortunately I did not have any ice in my freezer, so we put frozen peas in the pan with water to make it ice cold. So then after you set the string on fire and let it burn for a bit quickly put the bottle in the ice cold water and it will break at the intended place.

And so then it worked! So to summarize again, get ice cold water, make sure you keep the string burning hot (more fire), and use cotton string.

As you can see we made quite the mess 🙂 Unfortunately the glass does not break in a straight line, but I think this makes it look a little more creative. I sanded down the edges of the glasses so they are no longer sharp. I put a few in my cupboard to use as drinking glasses, and I put little mini-cactuses in 3 others, because it seemed fitting to have cactuses in corona glasses 🙂

Carving a linoleum world map

So my youngest brother came to me with this project. He wanted to carve a world map out of linoleum, and then paint it and hang it on his wall. He didn’t even know most people actually just use linoleum to stamp with and not as the end product. But that just made it so much more fun!

We didn’t find a piece of linoleum big enough for the world map so we got 3 pieces and split the map in 3. We found a world map outline on google, printed it, and then transferred it onto the linoleum with carbon copying paper.

After that we used the little carving tool thingies to cut out the outlines. My brother just wanted the linoleum to hang it on his wall, but now that we had it anyway I wanted to try stamping with it as well. Because the linoleum has to be on the wall and look correctly, the stamp is actually mirrored. So if you do not want to hang the linoleum as your end product, make sure you carve out the world map mirrored! I quite like our stamping result as well, and I think I might just try and find a nice frame somewhere and actually hang it in my house. I think the fact that it is mirrored makes it a little more special, plus it is a good memory of a nice afternoon spend with my brother.

So we painted the linoleum a little more black after we were done with the stamping, and then started filling out the carving with bright green paint. We used the smallest paint brushes we could find for this.

After drying the green paint with a hairdryer, we used the paint roller again to make sure only the carvings were green and none of the non-carved surface.

And voila, the end result. So I kept the stamp we made, and my brother took the linoleum plaques home. He hasn’t send me a picture of how he has hung them yet, but I’m sure I will see it soon!

P.S. Yesterday I visited the Fries Museum with my mom to see an exposition about knitting. It was really cool, and I took home some free knitting patterns they had, but I don’t actually know how to knit yet. So today my mom came by and gave me a book about knitting. She will teach me the basics (which are also in the book), but then the book also has a lot of different patterns and ways to knit, so I’m excited to start soon!

Sewing a Jip & Janneke pillow

Jip en Janneke are 2 characters in a series of famous Dutch children’s books by Annie M.G. Schmidt. In the Netherlands everyone grew up with these stories, and I think they have been translated into many languages. I have loved the drawings in the books by Miep Westendorp for so long.

One of my brothers is dating an American girl and she is using the books to learn Dutch. So a couple of months ago I made her a pillow with their picture on it. I loved the pillow so much I decided to make some for myself too!

I measured and cut 4 squares out of an old white curtain. Then I got some Jip & Janneke images I liked and enlarged them and copied them onto pattern paper. Then used a textile marker to copy them on to the fabric. After that I sewed the squares together and stuffed them with stuffing. And now they live on my couch. And i can mix and match whichever of the 4 images I want to see that day 🙂

I went to a crafts fair!

Last weekend was the Handwerkbeurs (crafts fair) in my town. It was a pretty large event and even sold out for several days of the 4-day event. I visited with my mom and 3 of our neighbors. There were so many amazing things to see. Some of the stands had some amazing quilts and now I think I need to start quilting. One of my neighbours was looking for an embroidery kit, and listening to the other women talking about it and giving advice made me curious too. My mom has recently gotten into weaving and she is making some amazing things (scarves and bags, and a table cloth is coming soon), so we looked at 2 stands with weaving tips, tricks and supplies. There were some amazing workshops going on, like felting scarves, making bracelets, knitting, crochet and much more. It was a very inspiring and good day!

So here is my loot:

I got a little felting kit to try this technique, as I am very curious about it but have never tried it before. I really like the beagle, because my neighbors have a beagle called Finn and he always stays with me whenever they go on holidays, So I want to make the little beagle look like Finn instead of copying the pattern from the kit.

And then I got a little embroidery kit, because everyone made me curious by talking about it so much. One of my neighbors said she finds it very relaxing and zen to do, so I guess now I’m learning embroidery too.

I think these 2 skeins are my favorite buy of the fair. The colors are so gorgeous and warm. I thought they were very manly, so maybe I will turn it into a scarf and/or hat for the astronaut boyfriend, but the more I look at them the more I want to keep the scarf for myself. I’m not sure yet if I will crochet or knit the scarf. I know how to do crochet, but knitting is also a new skill I would like to learn. I have all my grandmother’s knitting needles and a stack of her old skeins, so it would be nice to honor her by knitting with them. So I will keep you posted about what I will end up doing with these amazing skeins.

And then I bought 3 books as well, I just couldn’t help myself. The top one is about felting animals, so when I’m done with the beagle I want to try my hand at felting some birds and other animals. The book on the bottom left is about drawing and drafting patterns for designing and sewing your own clothes. I have dabbled in this a bit, but I could use a little refresher course. And then the last book is also about sewing and has a few really nice patterns I want to make, like several skirts, a coat, a vest and a jacket.

So I have quite a few supplies for some new creative projects for the coming weeks!

Recycling 2 t-shirts into 3 cowls for riding my motorbike

I have been taking motor lessons, and I love it. But it is cold and rainy out here, so I needed a new scarf. It can’t be a long scarf to wrap around my neck, because there cannot be anything flapping around loosely when I drive around on a bike. So I took 2 old t-shirts that do not fit me anymore, and turned them into 3 cowls.

The old shirts. I love pink, but unfortunately these are too small to wear. Please excuse my terrible looking crafts table 🙂

This was actually a very simple project that took me less than an hour. I cut off the tops of the t-shirts so I had a straight cowl. I put them around my neck and sort of measured out how tight I wanted them to be, and then cut them on the side, and sewed the edges back together. I hemmed the tops.

For both shirts I had the left-over bits and so i sewed them together, so I have 3 cowls now. One is pink (my favorite), one is green, and one is green and pink. I am very happy with them, and I am sure my motor instructor will be happy I won’t be riding around with a scarf flapping about.

I’m not sure why I didn’t take a photo with the green one, but you get the idea right? 🙂