Looking for crafty suggestions for a huge glass bottle

June 16, 2009 6:27 AM

Looking for crafty suggestions for a big glass bottle

I've just scored a big glass bottle that was being thrown away at work. I think technically it's a tapped demijohn - it's a big cylindrical bottle about 12" across and about 20" high, with a bung at the bottom. It looks a bit like this but with the tap. It's previously been used to contain 10% ethanol.

What crafty thing should I do with it? I'd love to have something living in it to look at - maybe one of those moss terraria that are so popular at the moment? How about turning it into a micro fish tank, but with just plants and maybe snails - I'm pretty sure it's not big enough for fish. Is this easy to do? Could I just scoop up a load of mud and algae from a local pond, fill 'er up, and see what happens? Would I need one of those air bubbler things? As you can see I'm pretty clueless about all things aquatic...

posted by primer_dimer to grab bag (10 comments total)

This is a nice bottle. Since I know nothing about terrariums or fish tanks I would leave it be or group it with something else and display.

If you live close to the ocean, or river, you could collect one shell, or rock, each time you visit and place it in the bottle. See how long it takes you to fill the bottle.
posted by Fairchild at 7:00 AM on June 16, 2009

I'd fill it with lots of something colorful; feathers, pom-poms, buttons, or sand. Maybe cheap candy or scary plastic fish in blue gel.

I have a friend who used his comically large mad scientist beaker to hold coins.
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:16 AM on June 16, 2009

Not living, but it'd keep your hands busy for a while...how about filling it with origami paper cranes? (Here's a mini version on Flickr.) The colours'd be amazing, you'd get them done just by idly folding while watching movies or tv or listening to podcasts, and there's no risk of having to figure out how to clean mud out of it.
posted by carbide at 7:38 AM on June 16, 2009

Lamp. Like mine.

(I re-used an old shade and got my cork & socket kit from here. You can find them cheaper, though. In retrospect, I spent too much. Heck, you could make it yourself.)
posted by minervous at 7:45 AM on June 16, 2009

I asked a question a while ago about how to cut an oddly shaped glass bottle, hoping to remove the neck and turn it into a vase. I gave up on the idea and instead made a terrarium with dirt, moss, sticks, and whatever plants wanted to tag along when I pulled up the moss.

It looks a lot like this.
posted by Science! at 7:57 AM on June 16, 2009

Make your own infused vodka, put a cork in it, and give it as a gift (or just keep it around as your big-ol' jug o' booze)
posted by The Whelk at 8:08 AM on June 16, 2009

Don't do the ecosystem thing. There are too many variables like how much light is enough without allowing it to stew on a widow ledge. You'd need a bubbler to keep it healthy and it would be impossible to clean to algae off the inside of the glass. If you want snails and plants, a fish tank is a better choice to start with.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:36 AM on June 16, 2009

I recently saw glass bottles filled with (stringed, small) christmas lights and thought they looked pretty cool. I think they were magnum-sized wine bottles.
posted by jacquilinala at 11:54 AM on June 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

You could use it as a terrarium.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/terrarium/
http://www.stormthecastle.com/terrarium/bottle-terrarium.htm
http://lifehacker.com/5170081/turn-a-wine-bottle-into-a-terrarium
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/133618/grow_a_bottle_garden_terrarium.html?cat=6
posted by anansi at 12:32 PM on June 16, 2009

Thanks for all your suggestions; I have decided to go with a string of LEDs.
posted by primer_dimer at 4:49 AM on June 17, 2009