Color Changing Bottle Lamp

Here's how to make a color changing bottle lamp from a used glass bottle.

- Used glass bottle

- Frosted glass finish spray

- Glass and tile drill bit (1/2")

- Water

- 9v battery

- 9v battery clip

- 220 Ohms resistor

- 5mm slow cycling LEDs

- Switch

- Soldering materials

I drilled a 1/2" inch hole at the base of the bottle using my glass drill bit and a drill press. First, I poured some water where I wanted to drill the hole, so the bit stays cool. When drilling, I poured water again every time the mix of glass and water formed a white paste. Pressing too hard when drilling will cause the glass to chip!

To frost the bottle I used a frosting spray for glass. I applied two layers of the spray, waiting a few minutes between each layer. At first glance, the bottle may not look so frosted, but the frosting increases as it dries. Drying time is around 4 hours.

I used two LEDs for my light source. I first soldered them in parallel, then I soldered the 220 ohms resistor with the cathode of the LEDs. My switch had three legs, so I soldered the anode of the LEDs to one of the side legs (doesn't matter which). The middle leg was soldered to the positive wire of battery clip. Finally the resistor was soldered to the negative wire of the clip and covered with a piece of shrinking tube.

I connected the switch fairly close to the LEDs so I could stick the switch in the drilled hole of the bottle.

Finally I just placed the LEDs in the bottle, glued the switch in the hole, connected the battery and voila!