.: Bottle Chandelier

I saw this on Pinterest, of course, and I started searching the web for other ones. This lady is the only one who has made one I guess, I could not find anything else like it! I was intrigued with it, so I asked friends and family to save their colored wine and booze bottles for me. After finishing our "homework" (haha) I washed and dried the bottles well. I had a metal wall medallion that was round, and I knew it would work perfectly. Here is a pic of it in it's former life hanging over the fireplace:

I took 19 gauge wire and secured two pieces around the neck of the bottles by twisting tight with plyers. Keep one twist on each side (to keep them level). I pulled the two sides to the top where I gave the tips a little fun "twist and curl" to keep them from stabbing me, and at the same time look cute.

I then used the same wire to suspend them at differing lengths from the medallion. After securing all the bottles, I started winding the Christmas lights. I had a colored string to put in the clear bottles, and white lights for the colored bottles. I carefully strung them through the metal, then looped them down into each bottle. This step took a little time, as you have to feed the bulbs in one at a time. I found if I folded up the amount of bulbs I wanted in the bottle and inched both strings in at one time, I did not crimp the cord or pull out the bulbs. ALERT. BE SURE YOU DON'T HAVE A BULB WEDGED INTO THE NECK OF THE BOTTLE. My first attempt went up in a stinky white cloud of smoke when one of the bulbs was tight against the cord and melted it, shorting out the whole string. Boo. Anyway, you just loop the lights into the bottles, then drape them down and around them until you run out of lights. At that point I plugged them in to be sure they would burn properly--so far so good! I had to do some minor adjustments to get the lights evenly spaced, and plug-ins plugged together. I then plugged the tops of the bottles with a modeling clay that will stay soft--I did not want the bottles to fill up with water and/or bugs.

I had some chain in the garage from our old swing that I attached on three points with some colorful carabiners.

The daytime look is not that great, but at night, wow

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By the time you get all your bottles and whatever you choose to hang them from together, the whole unit is heavy, so it has to be hung from a secure hook. I have a hook up under my cover for when there are high winds or nasty weather, and another hook off the lower deck tree.