You can melt glass with a butane burner.. the same kind you use to solder pipes. thats what glass crafters use at fairs, plain glass tubes, clear or colored, that the melt and form into little glass animals.
My microwave came with a double tiered rack, and when one of the insulating covers on the foot broke, my son melted some scrap glass and fashioned a new glass insulator in a week or two. (sometime i am amazed that my kids never blew up the house, or burned it down!)
as for the water/alcohol trick, yes, i am sure there are others.. i just don't know any off the top of my head. that one works well because both water and denatured alcohol are easy to buy and reasonable cheap.
there is an other, one, a simple salt (not table salt, but some other salt) that turn water pink/red, add something else, it goes clear, and other salt, and now the water is blue..
(i was made to do recertations as a child, and i made my kids do something come the holidays.. my son did magic tricks.. he got quite good at them.)
