... with a collection of vintage bottles?

All junk lovers seem to have a thing for vintage bottles!  Whether we find them in our favourite treasure shop (wink, wink) ... or at the upcoming garage sales ... or some of us get a kick out of excavating them from the ground in an abandoned yard (with permission of course!).  You know that feeling of glee when you see a rusted bottle top poking it's way out of the ground and you giddily but gently pull the dirt away hoping that the bottle is in tact! And if it is, well then the archeologist in you sets out to discover more ...

Now, what the heck are you going to do with your treasures? How to display them? And do you want to clean them first?  

Fortunately, I have wonderful windows in my home and take great pleasure in placing a collection of all colours and shapes and size of bottles on the window sill to catch the light. 

I tend to like the look of the bottles as they are, with only a gentle exterior cleaning.  If you are looking for a pristine clean look, then you want to take great care when cleaning these old timers ~ they somehow have survived years of being in the hard frozen ground in winter and the warm summer earth ... but if you should put too hot or too cold of water on the glass, you run the risk of breaking the glass.

Here are a few cleaning suggestions that I found on American Bottle:

1. Room temp water only. Anything other than that can cause bottle glass to crack.

2. Always turn bottle up-side-down and leave in box over night to drain all excess water

3. Vinegar and water 50/50 is a good cleaning combo.

4. Coca-Cola works well too believe it or not.

5. If you use muriatic acid be sure to wear eye protection and gloves. ALWAYS keep your muriatic solution covered with a lid. The fumes will cause steel to rust up to 40 feet away.

Here are just a few of the bottles I have displayed. I have grouped the brown and green varieties in this window and in my other arched window, I display my blue and clear collection! 

The afternoon sunlight glows on this amber glassware on a shelf in my shop. If you don't feel like digging in the dirt, then come on by and let's find you a few bottles ...