House in a Bottle

Hi All,

This is one of these impossible bottle crafts, "Ship in a bottle" is a common example. The bottle was not cut and re-glued. The house inside is larger than the bottle's mouth and made of wood not paper or elastic material

I wanted to achieve impossible bottle of my own

Why House in a bottle ?

• Unlike few "ship in the bottle" tutorials, one cannot just slide the house inside the bottle
• One has to build the House outside, like a jigsaw and then rebuild it inside the bottle
• I wanted to do something different

In this instructables, I will share How i put the house in a bottle and hopefully you would be able to do it too...

• Popsicle sticks
• Wooden Skewer
• Toothpicks
• Brown Acrylic paint
• Mini Saw
• Clamps
• Old clothes hanger
• Fevicol

I made 3 basic tools for assembling the house inside the bottle

• You need 8 to 10mm square sticks, Since I did not have it, I made them using Popsicle sticks
• I checked few bottles and it is easy to pass 6 popsicle sticks, so will not make anything thicker than 6 sticks together
• First glue 3 sticks together and hold them together with masking tape
• Leave it to dry for 2 hrs, then remove the masking tape
• Cut the popsicle sticks into 12 pieces of each 50 mm and 40 mm
• Glue the pieces in a zig-zag or tetris like form, this will be used to interlock during assembly
• After gluing you will have 6 long piece and 6 short pieces
• Stick 2 sets of 6 popsicle sticks together for the roof

• Overlay the the long and short pieces to make 3 layers as shown
• Initially I drilled holes on each piece and used a tooth pick to inter lock with each other
• But this is very difficult to interlock with un-professional, self made tools
• So ignore the holes I made at the end of each piece
• I have names each piece as A, B, C or D with layer number s from 1 to 3 for wal

• To make the roof, we need 2 triangle blocks
• Cut / Saw two triangles from a stack of 2 sets of 6 popsicle sticks
• To interlock two layers, I drilled holes of 2 mm and use tooth picks to hold them in position

• To make the roof, cut 12 pieces of 55 mm popsicle sticks
• Use paper tape to hold them together like a mat
• Do not glue them, any kind of gluing will happen only inside the bottle

• Lightly Sand the surface with sandpaper, clean it with damp cloth
• Using Acrylic colors, paint the house brown to give the wooden look
• Using Black color to make Doors and windows
• One can go further on decoration and detailing
• I kept it simple

• Like any glass bottle the bottom in not flat
• I tried few things
• PVA glue and Sand
  • Dilute PVA glue with 2:1 water and pour into the bottle
  • Add sand and leave it to dry
  • In my case over a week and still not dry
• Resin
  • I did not have any stock of resin, if you have I would recommend using it
• Superglue
  • I discovered this by accident
  • Pour super glue in the bottle using a straw, so that there are no splatter
  • Leave the bottle to dry overnight
  • Next day I found the bottle's bottom was flattened enough for me to work
  • Note : Super glue fumes got stuck on the inside of the bottle, using IPA or alcohol to clean it
  • One should be very careful to use superglue, follow all precautions mentioned on the super glue packing

• Since the bottles are oddly curved inside and outside, It is difficult to judge correct position
• Draw the outline of the bricks or bottom layer on a piece of paper
• Place the paper directly below the bottle and adjust it with all corners, visible
• Using a skewer, apply pva glue or fevicol and place the first brick
• Because this is the first brick, let is dry for 2 to 3 hrs before you continue
• Initially I had drilled holes and was using Toothpicks to interlock each piece, but I was not able to assemble the first layer, itself
• So I had to remove the tooth picks and assemble each brick at a time and glue it in place
• Once I finished the first layer, i poured few drops of PVA glue, just to hold everything in place
• Let t dry for a 12 hours

• Assemble 2nd layer by placing it on top of the first layer
• I used long metal piece (Old thin hanger) to apply glue one each piece and the used a hard wire tongs to place the brick in it's desired position
• It became more difficult as the layers increased, so patience is the key
• Continue till the top
• Leave it to dry for 2 hrs and you need break

• The popsicle sticks for the roof are held together using a paper tape
• and Hence we can just roll it and drop it in the bottle
• I stuck a string (using paper tape) at the of the roof to pull the roof in position
• To adjust the roof in position I used a hard metal wire, as I could bend it in any shape, it made it a very versatile tool
• Once the glue was dried, I could just pull the string out

• While assembling various parts, there was glue art many places
• I cleaned it using attaching tissue paper on a metal wire
• As mentioned earlier the metal wire can be bent in shape to reach any possible place, this helps in cleaning
• Because I used a lot of glue and superglue on the bottom of the bottle, it was un-neat
• I fix it, I poured some PVA glue on the floor using a straw and then added some sand
• The glue will take few days to dry, so donot seal the bottle
• Wait for few days, add moisture absorbing bags or silica gel to the bottle to speed up the dying
• Seal the bottle or add lights
• Place it on a shelf and ;light it up
• Feel proud of what you have accomplished "An Impossible Bottle"

Hope you liked the instructions, if you need any further details or have a suggestion, please leave message