Making light!

One of the things I am making for christmas is what I call "Booze Bottle Lamps" The lamps I am showing in this picture are going to be filled with sea shells, the other one with marbles.

I start out by drilling a hole in bottle near the bottom so the cord has somewhere to go. I use a 5/16" glass drilling bit. Then I decide if I am going to put the lamp kit in the cap or go with a cork. Either way I drill a 1/8th inch hole in the bottle cap or the cork. Then I push the cord through the hole in the bottle out the neck. Then I take the 1/8" NP thread nipple and shove through the cork or cap and tighten with nuts. Then the cord goes through the nipple and into a lamp kit. If I am using a lamp shade harp I put that on before the lamp kit, and use the cork- more body for everything to hold onto. once I get the cord through either the cork or bottle cap, the I install the lamp kit. Then I pick out a lampshade- I usually go cheap on this , finding them at thrift stores, the Ikea As-Is section or as shown in the photo, I take an old globe, cut it in half, ad some fringe and I have a great lamp shade for a desk or kids room- you just have to remember to use a CFL or other bulb that stays cool. And you get two lamp shades for every globe! You can leave the labels on the bottle or take them off. When the lamp kit is installed you can fill the bottle with small sea shells, craft marbles, buttons, gravel (Great for light plastic bottles to give them some weight) I plan on doing some beer bottles, for some friends who like that fancy shmancy micro beer. I come from an Old Milwaukee/Pabst Blue Ribbon family myself. Local beer was Rainier or Olympia when I was growing up!