Tag: Plastic

Crocheted Bottle Cap Hot Plate

tipnut Bottle Cap Crochet Plate

Links of entry

I found a tutorial from the end-50s that I find funny: Bottle Cap Crochet.
Personally I find the shapes of the hot plates a little too vintage, but one can always create another shape.
The only problem I see is that in our supermarket all bottle caps are made from plastic ;-) Perhaps then better a bottlecap pincushion? ;-)


Links:
Bottle Cap Crochet

Here at unikatissima:
Bottlecap Pincushion

Box from woven PET stripes

Square Box from PET

Links of entry

On a brasilian recycling website I found a good tutorial on how to make a box from PET bottles (click there on ‘Tutorial – How to make a square box’).

I won’t do this because we don’t buy so many PET bottles and if we do we can give them back.
But I think that the tutorial can be used with other materials, too, I will once take a look.

 

Links:
Utsumi – Crafts with PET plastic, click there on ‘Tutorial – How to make a square box’

Galathite (milk stone)

unikatissima Galathite Milk Stone Button

Links of entry

Once I heard that you can make your own plastic – I’ve been interested immediately ;-))
Further research showed the word ‘Galathite’ and a website with wonderful galathite jewelry.
Needless to say that I wanted to know how to make this myself and I found several tutorials (see links below).
The bottom line is to extract the casein from low fat(!), warm milk by dint of vinegar, to shape it and then let dry.
On the photo you see a button (my first try). I wouldn’t use it, because it can break a little too easily. If I had made it thicker, I think that it could be used.
I sanded and polished it which was very easy. It has a beautiful soft shine (which I couldn’t show unfortunately on the photo).
I didn’t really care about quantities while trying it but even so I’m satisfied with the result. It was also very fast: after about 15 Min. the button moulding blank was ready and could begin to dry.
Best to try it yourself ;-)


Links:
Galalithe: a French tutorial, that I show here, because I like the photos of the work steps best

At instructables:
Homemade Plastic
Make plastic out of milk

Jewelry from galathite

Plastic Straw Lantern

Plastic Straw Lantern from Ironed Straws

Links of entry

A long time ago I found a tutorial on how to make a lantern from plastic straws. I even tried it and it worked fine. But I gave the lanterns away without taking any photos ;-(

The instruction is in German with illustrating photos.

 

Here is a translation:
Material:

  • Plastic drinking straws
  • Parchment paper
  • Iron
  • An old wooden tray
  • Scissors
  • Double-sided tape
  • Tealight

That’s what you have to do:

  • Lay the parchment paper on your working space, perhaps lay even the old wooden tray underneath.
  • Lay the plastic straws neatly on the parchment paper and lay another layer of parchment paper on it.
  • Iron on highest setting, but without steam over the parchment paper on the plastic straws. The straws will melt.
  • If everything became flat, let the plastic cool down. You can hear that they cool because there is a cracking noise.
  • Carefully release the straws from the parchment paper.
  • Cut the ‘mat’ with the scissors in the form you want.
  • Fix the ends with the tape and put a tealight into.

What I learned when testing it:

  • Best iron in an well ventilated area, because there are (toxic?) vapours.
  • The ironed straws are very, very hot, so make sure to let them cool down thoroughly.
  • Never iron plastic directly, but put always some parchment paper between iron and plastic to protect the iron.
  • Make the lantern big enough, so that it can’t inflame from being to near the flame of the tealight.


Links:
Plastic Straw Lantern (German)
votive

Beaded Amulet Bag

Beaded Amulet Bag

Links of entry

Sharon Bateman shows very interesting beading loom techniques on her website. One of them is an instruction on how to make an amulet bag with a so-called tube-aloo. This tube-aloo is nothing else then a clear tube.
I once tried this technique with a toilet paper tube. I think that the clear tube-aloo is easier to use, but for a try the toilet paper tube really was sufficient.
Because I don’t use amulet bags and still have no idea what else to do with such a little bag I didn’t finish my bag ;-)
But it was an interesting experience and I found the technique not only easy to work but actually ingenious.


Links:
Sharon Bateman
Beaded Amulet Bag

Plastic Bag Tote

Plastic Bag Tote

Links of entry

At Marlo’s Crochet Corner I eventually found instructions on how to cut a plastic bag to get the ‘yarn’ for crocheting and/or knitting. She also provides an instruction on how to crochet a tote.
Once I crocheted a purse with such yarn and it worked very well, but as always I didn’t take any photo ;-(
The purse was quite stiff (which I find appropriate for a purse ;-)).
I think about making plastic yarn (plarn) and working freeform with it, but I still have no idea what to make, because items knitted of crocheted with plastic bag yarn tend to get big.


Links:
Marlo’s Crochet Corner
Plastic Bag Tote
Cutting the plastic bag ‘yarn’

Here at unikatissima:
Freeform Needlework

Fabric from Plastic Bags

Fabric from Plastic Bags

Links of entry

What you see here ist a Makeup bag made entirely from plastic bag fabric that I found on craftster.org. The one who made the bag links to the tutorial on how to make sewable fabric from plastic bags.
Once I tried this technique but it didn’t work as supposed. I think I put my iron at a too high temperature. Or possibly the bags I tried to fuse were made from different plastics and therefore incompatible.
I will try it again – one day soon ;-)


Links:
craftster.org: A giant craftsters community
Makeup bag made entirely from plastic bag fabric
Make sewable fabric from plastic bags