Irish I had a Beer: Jewelry Made from Recycled Beer Bottles for a stylish St. Paddy's Day
I can’t believe it’s already March, and what does March stand for? Drinking green beer in honor of St. Paddy's Day of course! A lot of the glass jewelry we make comes from recycled beer bottles, so I thought I’d get my Irish on (I mean my name is Kathleen, doesn’t get more Irish than that) and explore a little more about Irish beer and what bottles it comes in.
Let's Toast to St. Patrick's Day with a Green Beer!
After doing a little research it seems most Irish beers come in brown or amber bottles. The one I know I like a lot is Harp Lager from Great Northern Brewery in Dublin. So now I’m off to the liquor store to buy a case of Harp, to drink in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, and of course, turn it into jewelry for you. To be honest it doesn’t feel very St. Patrick’s Day-ish if the beer or the beer bottle isn't green, but let me tell you what else I found out about the Irish and their beer.
What is the most consumed beer in Ireland?
So according to the last study on what the Irish actually drink, the number one beer consumed in Ireland is…. Heineken Beer! Thought it was Guinness? Same here. But in my glass-jewelry-making world, yay for green glass connected to beer and Ireland! We use Heineken bottles for a lot of our lime green pieces, including the Simple Seaglass Necklace in lime that is a great seller and also one of the items of the month for March and on special discount for you!
I’ve also added a couple of our best-selling pieces made from Harp beer, so make sure to get in on this insider-only flash sale asap. (Make sure to sign up for our email newsletter to get our insider-only deals)
All that is Green is Gold: Our Glass Colors and the Bottles they come from
Beyond beer, some of the other bottles we use are Coca-Cola of course, which is one of our best-selling colors. The coke bottles come out sort of antique green and the glass is some of the highest quality with a beautiful luster. This glass looks good with just about everything and is one of our best-selling colors.
Another one of my favorites is the teal, which is a dark blue-black that comes from German Riesling bottles. It can be hard to get ahold of, and the vintages that use this color glass change year to year, so I am always on the hunt for this bottle and get super excited when I find a way to get my hands on them.
That’s one of the challenges about working in recycled glass, the supply is forever changing, and I am always stocking up at the dumpsters on the colors we will need and stockpiling all the empty bottles in the studio (yes it looks like a frat party blew up in my studio).
There is even a seasonality to finding the right bottles, people drink more white wine in the summer months which come from clear and yellow/gold bottles so there are more of those in the summer and less in the winter, and in winter people drink more red wine which comes in green and olives. I could even tell people were drinking a lot more at home during 2020 because, well let’s just say the recycling dumpsters were way fuller than I had ever seen them before. I can also tell Topo-Chico water and Kombuchas in general are gaining in popularity because: more empty bottle showing up in the dumpsters. Sometimes I feel like I’m part glass artist, part cultural anthropologist digging in the dumpsters all the time seeing what people like to drink and how it changes with seasons and things like quarantine.
Okay, enough about dumpster glass (for now, at least!) Make sure to explore our online store to grab yourself some deals with the beautiful tortoise amber glass from Harp and the bright and fun lime green of Heineken. Happy St. Patrick’s Day – make sure to get a St. Patty’s day kiss too since everyone is a little bit Irish this month!
ABOUT SMART GLASS
Smart Glass Jewelry is an artist's studio based out of Atlanta, Georgia specializing in upcycling post-consumer glass bottles into wearable, beautiful jewelry. Smart Glass Jewelry reclaims glass beer, wine, saki, vodka, whiskey and gin bottles to create their colorful and sustainable designs.
ABOUT KATHLEEN PLATE
Kathleen Plate is the talented artist behind Smart Glass Jewelry. Born and raised in Cathlamet, a small town in Washington State, her small-town roots are evident in her minimalist, “keep it simple” design philosophy. Now residing in Atlanta, Georgia, you’ll find her every day in her studio, tinkering and creating, and hitting the occasional dumpster at night.