Hollowed out light bulbs... they are so fun!

I have been addicted to Pintrest lately and I've been looking up different ways to display plants in the home. I came across this amazing picture that made me move immediately. I particularly liked how the bulbs are hanging from branches. I looked up some videos on YouTube on how to hollow out light bulbs and there were plenty of them. After some failed attempts I found my own way of making these using specific tools.

 

A list of what you will need.

1) Incandescent bulbs (not flourescent): it's ok if they are frosted, the powder inside that makes it frosted washes out easily. I broke 4 bulbs before I got the hang of it so get extra, but just try to use a really light touch and you should be OK.

2) Pliers: several different kinds. I have lots of crafting pliers and I found the different tips made a big difference.

3) Gloves: I just got some working gloves from the dollar store.

4) Glasses: the glass can fly! So protect your eyes!

5) Screwdriver: imperative.

Actually all the above are imperative. I also used one of those foil lasagna pans to work in so that glass doesn't end up all over the table, in my hands, feet...etc... though that did happen twice. It was well worth it. 

After you put on your gloves and glasses, get the rest of the tools you need placed near by. Get your light bulb out and put it in your pan.

 

The pliers I used are NEEDLE NOSE pliers and then the blue one that is much pointier and is round rather than flat. Hope you can find something like that, if not, just something thinner would be good. 

Use your needle nose pliers to rip off the metal covering on the end of the light bulb. It should peel off easily.

   

Next, It's time to break off the black ring you see in the first picture. I used the smaller pliers for this because the tip of the smaller pliers fit right into the little hole that the piece of metal was covering. Just grip tightly around a chunk of the black glass and bend it. It will crack. Once it cracks, you can pick the pieces off easily. Pour out any pieces of loose glass as you are continuing with this process.

This picture is with half of the black glass cracked off. Once it's all off, you'll be left with a glass tube. It is very delicate, but breaking this part of the light bulb is what lead me to breaking the entire bulb. Be very light handed with your screw driver for this part or you'll end up with this:

Stick your screwdriver all the way in until you hit a barrier. Turn your screw driver as if you were screwing a screw but very slowly. Eventually you will hear a crack. You have broken the tube!!! Congrats. There is still a lot of glass that's sharp and unsightly bordering the opening of the light bulb. Shake out the excess glass. Now use your screwdriver to break all the glass that's hanging around. Just as if you were scraping the edges of a peanut butter jar scrape away that glass. You will hear it crunching as you go around the inside rim. If you want it super smooth you can always smooth the inside edges off with your needle nose pliers. Needle nose pliers usually have roughly filing edges on the inside edge. Rub that filing edge on the inside rim of the light bulb. Shake out the glass and voila! You have a hollowed out light bulb! :)

There are lots of crafty things you can do with a hollowed out bulb. Just do your research online. I turned mine into a copycat of that picture I saw. Here it is. I think it worked out pretty well!

 Enjoy your crafting!