Earth Hour: DIY Lightbulb Vase

Happy Weekend. Did you know that it’s Earth Hour tonight at exactly 8:30? Are you turning your lights off?  I confess, I’ve never really recognized it before, but, not only are the kids reminding us of the time; they’re also reminding us of exactly what we were doing last year on this occasion and why we didn’t turn off our lights. They can hardly wait to darken the entire house. This year is entirely different. Not only will we go dark, but, for me, it meant the perfect day to do a long awaited recycled light bulb project.

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I’ve been saving old light bulbs these past months and today, brought them out.  We turned them into vases and later, will experiment further and turn them into terrariums. (We’ll report back later about our light bulb terrariums. Soil and seeds do not make the most interesting photos, at this point!)  Continue below and we’ll share how we transformed these ordinary objects into these vases.

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SUPPLIES:

Old Lights Bulbs

Pliers

Pointed Screw Driver

Small Hammer Optional

Old Newspaper

 

TUTORIAL:

  1. Gather supplies and prepare work space. Have a waste paper basket near-by and extra newspapers available.
  2. Grip the little gold point on top of the bulb with a pliers and twist. (This is call the solder point.) This will free the brass contact and break one of the wires.
  3. Use a pointed screw driver to push into the hole left behind and to break the black area, which is glass. No surprise, since this is already a glass project but this is a project that requires adult assistance. This black filler is glass and you need to break this away very, very carefully. It breaks very brittle. I wrapped the bulb in a newspaper cone, holding it away from me, so that no glass shards would come our way, as I broke the glass. It just needed some twisting and broke fairly easily.
  4. Carefully gather the black filler in newspaper and throw all glass shards away.
  5. Now, you can gently shake out the filament and your bulb is ready for use! Enjoy.

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To use these as vases, we used a light flower and just took a piece of poster putty under the bulb to hold it into place. They’re really pretty; a fun way to re-cycle and a great way to think of the day.

Happy Earth Day! Happy Weekend!

Something you might like: (just click on link below)

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