Tuesday, June 29, 2010

What I'm Working On: Designs by Leslie

What I’m working on now: Waist Not - wine bottle belt buckles

As part of my new eco-friendly ‘drinking for art’ line of glass work, I have designed these belt buckles made from wine and other spirit bottles.





A section of the bottle is cut and then fused in my kiln. I made a mold to slump the glass over during the second firing so the glass can be attached to buckle hardware.
Friends have generously been dropping off their empty wine bottles. I’m not sure what my neighbors think, as I leave in the morning and will come home to multiple empty bottles on my front porch. My favorite bottles to work with are the painted labels. When I shop for wine, I am now much more into the color of the glass and if the label is painted than what is on the inside.




My most recent acquisition was this a bottle of Belvedere Intense 100 proof vodka. The price was high, but then I remembered how much I have paid for sheets of special glass from Bullseye or other glass companies. I know that the buckle is going to be amazing, I just hope I don’t end up in rehab trying to get the bottle emptied.



Love what you do, do what you love!

2 comments:

FuzzyMug said...

The buckles are beautiful, Leslie! Really cool to see part of the process, too.

tarabu said...

Wait. People *drink* vodka?!? It's not just for pouring over vanilla beans in a quart jar until it's time to bake?

I've been doing it wrong all these years!