I used to go out early (once in awhile) on Tuesday mornings, under the guise of taking a walk, and rummage through the neighbors recycle bins. Early mornings for two reasons; 1) often the recycle truck came before 8am and 2) we live in a somewhat uppity neighborhood that doesn't look too kindly on that type of thing ... or perhaps the neighbors just don't like one to know how much, and what, they drink. I was quite selective, looking for specific shades; of course, Skyy Blue Vodka bottles, being among the favorite.
Once home, I'd clean the bottles in the sink, removing the labels, take out to my studio. I'd start by breaking the bottles with a hammer. It's quite amazing how strong these bottles are, you have to hit them in just the right place to get them to break (and the grocery wraps our bottles up like they are so fragile). Then, using my two-wheeled cutters, I'd the them down into usable portions. Then, off to the rock tumbler, where the glass, about 1 cup at a time, with an equal amount of sand, would tumble anywhere between 1 and 3 days. Then, the glass is cleaned, set out to dry and put up for future use. I repeated this periodically; and then two things happened; I stopped doing mosaic work and Hurricane Katrina came through and wiped out all recycling in this section of the country (thus my loss of bottle supply).
So, I've this container out in the garage of the remains of my faux beach glass that I drug in this afternoon. I'm going to list in it the Artfire shop, and what I hope mosaic artists will see as a good price, to see if anyone is interested in it.
Mixed Colors, Green, Clear or White
No comments:
Post a Comment