Make These Whimsical Wine Glasses

When its time to celebrate with friends, have these whimsical wine glasses ready. Its more fun if you keep them hidden away until your guests are ready for their second glass of wine because the glasses are tipsy too! Great fun, so let's get started.

I placed a scrap piece of wood under the wine glass and made sure there were no flammable materials near the flame of the blowtorch. There's nothing special about the blowtorch, you can buy one at any hardware store. (You can probably use it once and return it for credit if you have no other use for it, but the can of propane gas it attaches to will not be returnable.)

Begin by lighting the blowtorch and positioning the flame beneath the bowl of the glass and the stem. Blast it for awhile. You'll see the color of the flame turn to bright yellow as the glass heats up. It only takes a few minutes. Don't burn yourself. You can steady and turn the glass by grabbing it lightly around the top rim because glass is such a good insulator it won't be hot. Don't touch it down lower or you may get burned. (If you get burned you can sue me but I've already told you not to burn yourself, so this sentence will be exhibit A in my defense. If you're a kid, get mom and dad to help you. If you're a kid, why do you need a wine glass? As a gift for mom and dad? Ok, but get an adult to help you.)

As the color of the flame becomes more yellow, the stem becomes hotter and softer. When it reaches a certain softness, you can actually bend it a little with very little pressure.

Once its bendable, move the flame away from the stem. Don't shut off the torch because that would take two hands and mean you would have to let go of the glass. f you do that, the softened stem will not hold the glass upright and the bowl will tilt down like a droopy flower and fall over, and you'll have a hot mess. So just stand there with a burning torch in one hand and hold the wine glass by the rim with the other as it cools and hardens. This is important: bent is funny but really bent is not going to stay upright when you fill it with wine. So a slight angle is best. If you bend too far you can always get out the torch and try again with the same glass.