Examine the contents, not the bottle.

November 14, 2007 11:30 AM

I have access to a bunch of old chemical bottles, in a wide variety of sizes. What to do with them?

I'm sure I can find corks at a crafts store that will fit them. I'd love to fill them with something for Christmas/hostess gifts, but seem to be at a loss for ideas! Thanks in advance.

posted by ms.v. to Home & Garden (24 answers total)

Response by poster: The bottles look like these.
posted by ms.v. at 11:31 AM on November 14, 2007

CHEMICALS.
posted by dead_ at 11:40 AM on November 14, 2007 [2 favorites]

Flavored vodka
Flavored olive oils
Limoncello!
Pancake mix (in the wider ones)
Scone mix
Soup mix
Epsom salts
Terrariums
posted by barnone at 11:42 AM on November 14, 2007

Sand art
posted by hermitosis at 11:46 AM on November 14, 2007

If they are chemical bottles, please don't put any food in them. If you simply must put food in them, please don't put any liquid food in them.
If you must put liquid food in them, please don't put any alcohol in them.

Terrariums sounded like a good idea, but these bottles are far too small to house anything decent.

Ant farms in the larger ones could work. You could make it sand-artsy, while you're at it.

Flowers, coins, watch parts, innerestin' rocks, or whatever could go in the littler ones. Or even just water and food coloring.
posted by Acari at 12:06 PM on November 14, 2007

check ebay, as some of these may be worth some cash. Escepcilly if they have a paper label intact or have words embossed on them.
posted by cosmicbandito at 12:11 PM on November 14, 2007

Look at this thread for an explanation of why not to put food into the bottles.
posted by OmieWise at 12:17 PM on November 14, 2007

make your own sake (hippie style) - just need water, sugar, rice, handful of white raisins, yeast (brewers is best) and a balloon.

Brew it in a large bottle (gallon of carlo rossie type bottle), than bottle it in your new bottles. They make great gifts for people.

i got the recipe from my step-mom who used to brew it herself in Alaska. The recipe is from an old Whole Earth Catalog (60-70's?).

I made it twice with fairly good results, its no at all how traditional sake is made, but its flavor can come damn close.

if interested in the recipe message me.
posted by Black_Umbrella at 12:38 PM on November 14, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks OmieWise for the link. Yikes. Ok, so no food!!
posted by ms.v. at 12:38 PM on November 14, 2007

I currently have my makeup (all in sealed containers of their own, eyeshadow, tubes of lipstick, etc.) displayed in the bathroom in some beakers I liberated from the lab I work in. So I'd say use them to organize stuff (that you don't plan on eating)
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 12:42 PM on November 14, 2007

If I received any food or body care items in one of these bottles, I'd toss it out and probably be a little horrified about eating any food items from you in the future.

Fresh flowers would be nice, or use them as a vase for decorative sticks, feathers, etc.
posted by yohko at 12:42 PM on November 14, 2007

You know, you could put food in them, provided you didn't eat any of it afterwards. Like those decorative bottles filled with pickled chillies, or layers of different spices. I'd probably superglue the lid on afterwards though, just to be sure nobody actually tried to taste their contents.
posted by kisch mokusch at 12:54 PM on November 14, 2007

If you're not dead set on giving them away, they look pretty darn cool sitting in the tray - It would make great wall art if you could secure the bottles to the tray!

As gifts, you could fill them with small slips of paper with memories you and the person/host/hostess made together, fortune cookie style.
posted by odi.et.amo at 12:59 PM on November 14, 2007

fill with wax and make candles!
posted by thinkingwoman at 1:14 PM on November 14, 2007

Yes, good god don't put food in them. That is so horrifying. If they are lab glass they could have had any kind of chemicals put in them and it's often impossible to get those cleaned properly.

Water and sand or glitter to make snowglobe-esque things?
posted by agregoli at 1:29 PM on November 14, 2007

They're beautiful. Make lamps. Wrap wire around them to make a hanger, and add a candle, or carefully, drill a hole in the base, and wire for a hanging lamp. Hang several as a group. I saw lamps like this on the web somewhere, but have no idea where. One lamp was made of several milk bottles in a wire carrying crate, with long thin lightbulbs. Really cool.
posted by theora55 at 2:16 PM on November 14, 2007

Collect a small sample of beach sand, a twig, or memento from places you travel, throw them in a bottle and label them - preferably on a handwritten little note with the place and date you collected the item. A great way to remember favorite moments.

I have a collection of these bottles and in each I put a little handful of sand and the origin of the beach. They are stored on a little shelf by a window. I love looking at the bottles - makes me all warm and fuzzy thinking about the beach in the middle of a hard, cold winter. Plus the light coming in through the window and hitting the glass makes my kitchen sparkly and happy.
posted by HeyAllie at 2:45 PM on November 14, 2007

I say fill them with coloured water and sit on the front porch mixing them together and laughing maniacally.

Performance Art will be your defence
posted by sycophant at 2:48 PM on November 14, 2007

Crap, sorry, I didn't see that they were really chemical bottles, not just 'chemist' bottles which look like that but weren't ever filled. Thanks for the warnings everyone :-)
posted by barnone at 3:33 PM on November 14, 2007

How about chalk art (to make up for my food/drink error)?
posted by barnone at 3:35 PM on November 14, 2007

How to make a lamp.
posted by barnone at 3:38 PM on November 14, 2007

Is an oil lamp unsafe for these bottles?
posted by barnone at 3:54 PM on November 14, 2007

Pebbles, water, and a stalk of bamboo.
Unless the chemicals kill off the bamboo. But it tends to be pretty hardy.
posted by bassjump at 7:40 PM on November 14, 2007

How about something akin to the first lamp on this page:

http://www.afterglow-studio.com/work.html
posted by primer_dimer at 4:35 AM on November 16, 2007