Bottle Necklace

Whilst browsing the internet recently, I found some cute bottle necklaces! I have a few little glass bottles that I’ve kept since childhood, so decided to turn them into necklaces!

It doesn’t take much to make a simple necklace, just wire, chain and basic jewellery findings. After making the first, I made more and took pictures so I could share this tutorial!


Basic Necklace
(further decoration explained after basic tutorial, along with where to buy supplies!)

You’ll need:
A small bottle
Jewellery wire (I used approx 1mm thick wire)
Chain
4 Jump rings
1 Clasp
Contents for bottle (optional)

Tools:
Wire cutters
Round nose pliers
Flat nose pliers
Ruler
Glue (optional, for fixing on lid/cork)

1. To create the first bail, wrap the wire around the round nose pliers to make an open circle, with two inches to spare at the end. Wrap the end of the wire around the longer side and bend the tip in with flat nose pliers. Bend the bail at right angles from the rest of wire.

2. Wrap the wire once around the neck of the bottle. Loop it around the bail.

3. Wrap the wire back around to the opposite side of the bottle neck and bend at an angle from the neck of the bottle.

4. Create another bail using the round nose pliers, as in step 1.

5. As in step 2, wrap the wire around the neck of the bottle and loop it around the second bail. Wrap the wire around the bottle as many times as you wish (I just covered the neck) and then bring the wire to the ‘back’ of the bottle. Trim off the excess wire and tuck the end into the back of one of the bails.

6. Twist the jump rings open using the round nose and flat nose pliers.

7. Decide the length of chain you want and cut two pieces of chain, half that length. For example, if you desire a 20” necklace, cut two 10” pieces of chain. Fix the clasp to one end of the chains, and the bottle to the other ends.


8. Fill the bottle with the contents of your choice. If you want, seal the bottle with glue.

And that makes a simple bottle necklace! Read on for a quick run down on adding more decoration.

Beaded Bottle

You’ll need:
Beads
Eye pins and/or head pins
Jump rings

Tools:
As before

1. Slide the beads onto the head/eye pins and bend the end around in a loop with round nose pliers. Cut off the end and use the flat nose pliers to bend the end of the loop in.

2. To join together a link of beads, use eye pins and link them together.

3. Join onto the necklace using jump rings. For the green bottle necklace, I threaded several beads onto a jump ring before fixing it to the jump ring at the end of the chain. I added the link of beads to the bottom of the bail and attached a couple more beads to the chain for a fuller look.

I put a little message in the bottle (see below for info!) The text on the paper is the lyrics of Jill Tracy’s ‘The Fine Art of Poisoning’, as the bottle has always made me think of dark deeds!

Message in a Bottle

For this, I cut a tiny square of tea-stained paper and wrote on it with black pen.
I ran my nail along the edges of the paper and screwed the paper up several times to create a distressed look. Then I rolled the paper up and tied a piece of thread around the middle. A short piece of embroidery thread also looks good.

The daisy is years old, I put it in the bottle when I was a child and then ‘lost’ it in a box of stuff until fairly recently. Decided to keep it in there along with the message!

Tassel Bottle

To make a tassel, follow this tassel necklace tutorial as far as step 4.
Alternatively, buy a tassel (local fabric shop, etc)

Fix it onto the bottle using a jump ring.
The beads were fixed on the same way as on the beaded bottle.

Flower Charm Bottle

The flower charms were fixed on using jump rings, as with the beaded bottle. Again, I created a cluster of them, this time on a larger (8mm) jump ring. I also attached some leaf charms to the opposite side.

If you’re wondering why it contains a pink lizard, I originally used the bottle to make a miniature specimen bottle! I decided to leave it in there until I think of something else to fill the bottle with!


Other ideas:

• Use glass paint
• Try incorporating some decorative wire wrapping
• Use a miniature perfume bottle
• Attach tiny bells and jingle everywhere you go
• Put a photo of a loved one inside
• Decoupage the bottle
• Fill the bottle with tiny found objects
• Decorate the stopper/cap 

Where I got these bottles:

• The two clear bottles I used came from gift sets of bath salts.
• The green one was dug up at the bottom of the road (seriously, I was a mucky kid)
• The brown one contained a sample of an herbal tonic that my Mum had free from a health food shop recently! I cut off the seal because I thought it made the bottle look too modern.

Where else to get bottles (because digging around in the earth isn’t the best idea!)

• Ebay
• Etsy
• Some jewellery shops (I’ve seen some super-cute tiny ones in a local bead shop!)

I hope you found this post interesting or inspiring!


Will be linking up to the fabulous parties listed below!