Year of Clay – Upcycle

This is a tribute to International Earth Day (April 22). Clay makes a wonderful cover for so many things including old bottles that might otherwise get recycled or discarded. Not that recycling is a bad thing but you want to aim for higher on the list than that. Upcycling (reusing) is a bonus.

According to Wikipedia:

Upcycling is the use of waste materials to provide useful products.

I love the shape of the Mateus wine bottles and lucky me – I have relatives that drink it! The bottles are a lovely organic shape and the neck is wide enough to accommodate a few flower stems. Both of these qualities make it just about perfect for upcycling it to a pretty vase.

In this case, I raided the Tooaquarius Boxes of Canes, pulled out pretty much every single blue and turquoise flower plus a few others, and started slicing. For this piece, I didn’t pick a specific design and simply placed the flowers in lines and curves. There is about 2 oz of cane on this bottle – so some 6 or 700 slices. This sampler vase has been sanded and hand buffed (oh I need a bench grinder, I do).