May 26, 2017 – Our Creative Haven

According to a sneaky little Google search, 2,500,000,000 light bulbs are sold each year. 20,000 of which are on the Eiffel tower alone! The average life of a light bulb is around 2000 hours (83 days). But what if there was a way to extend their lives even longer and recycle them!

Here is a little (slightly messy) tutorial on how to make this lovely light bulb vase. This was another spy on Pinterest that took me quite a while to work out how to make!!

First up is to dismantle your light bulb. This can be messy and potentially dangerous as your dealing with small shards of glass. I recommend putting the light bulb in a box to collect all the shards, and wearing goggles and washing up gloves to protect your eyes and hands.

I used a pair of side cutters to remove the initial pin.
Then using some pliers I gradually started to break the black glass. This is quite thick glass, and make sure you hold the metal top of the light bulb not the glass dome as it’s easy to accidentally squeeze too hard and to break the dome glass.
Next up you need to remove the glass that holds the filament in place. This again is quite thick. I used a screwdriver placing it on the thick glass and gently taping the end with a hammer. You have to be gentle but firm but watch out that when you free the filament, it doesn’t fall too quickly as it can smash the dome below! Remove enough of the glass so you have a smooth edge inside.
Then finally using your pliers gently remove the remaining filament and then you have your empty light bulb.

As you can see it’s a little messy!

I found these lush napkin holders in the Zara home sale for £6. I was searching in charity shops for them but I found they were actually more expensive as they were being labelled ‘vintage’. Anyways, place the light bulb on top of the napkin ring and decide on the angle at which you’d like your vase to be. Once happy, hold them upside down, and secure the ring in place using a glue gun.