Paper stick fork & Tape rack
Darcy Turner offers two cool tools – a fork to make paper sticks for sculpture, and a rack to make cutting tape quick and easy.
Author Archives: EcoResearcher
Making Stars from Cans
% pointed star & How to score aluminium to eliminate rips and tears. Video by Dialed in DIY
DIY Homemade Recycled Plastic Windmill
Plastic bottle Windmill design video with cork and cable tie by Ursula Allen from Switzerland AKA The Recycling Queen
Origami Kusudama made of cans – Origami Cans
Videos by Maphy Section from Indonesia. Instructions are incomplete, but enough to get started.
How to make a bean bag cushion chair from recycled umbrellas
Alice sews umbrellas together t o make floor cushions.
How to make a bed from recycled paint cans
A recycled bed base by Alice Tamami, Fiji
Collection: Aluminium can trays
A gallery of woven can trays from various sources.
Soda/Beer Can Ashtrays
Short instructions by Nykole M at Cut out and keep, with more examples and comments
(POP)culture
Designer Garth Britzman of Lincoln, Nebraska used recycled bottles filled with colored water to create stunning topographical shade canopy for a vehicle. I love how the natural shape of the plastic bottles makes the pooled water look like leaves.
How to Make a Woven Vase Out of a Soda Bottle
Video instructions by Howcast.
Wonderful DIY Woven Plastic Bottle Vase
Gives a crystal effect. Tutorial by Wonderfuldiy.
Why Everyone Is a Maker Now
Makerbot cofounder Bre Pettis, now the man behind Bold Machines, explains how America became a nation of makers
My 10 Commandments for Makers
Adam Savage’s Maker Faire 2014 speech. “Humans do two things that make us unique from all other animals; we use tools and we tell stories. And when you make something, you’re doing both at once.”
What Is a Maker? You Are
Article by Caleb Kraft
Collection: Bed bases
A gallery of reuses of bed bases from various sources
Collection: Bed springs
A large collection of ideas using single bed springs.
A fence built with innersprings and ingenuity
A really great design for a recycled mattress fence by Upshop Industries – with instructions. Bolted together.
Mattress repair, Cuba
Zunilda Mata from 14ymedia writes about René, the Mattress Magician – read it – it will make you appreciate your own mattress more.
How to dispose of an old mattress & upcycle the bedsprings/timber and also feed the worm farm!
Video by Chris from The Ultimate Recycler describing an investigation – using a wormery – into how the parts of a mattress/base could be disposed of without taking to landfill.
Dismantling a box spring
Video of Cindy from Upcycle Design lab taking apart a box spring in order to recycle some parts and reuse some springs.
Collection: Box springs
A collection of reuses for box springs, from various sources.
Recycling a Mattress and Box Spring
Carla took apart a mattress and box spring to see what was involved, In her podcast, Carla shares info about how some states in the US are testing innovating recycling programs.
Plastic Cap Trophies
Assembled without glue! Instructions by Carla from Trashmagination
DIY T-shirt quilt without fusible webbing
Leslie from Faith in fear passes along her method for making t-shirt quilts, combining several tutorials she found online.
How green is fusible webbing?
Skye Kilaen from Crafting a Green World investigates how environmentally friendly fusible webbing is.
How safe is fusible webbing to use?
Skye (from CAGW) investigates how safe fusible web/iron-on interfacing is, according to US industry guidelines.
Stashbusting yarn
A series about stashbusting by Yoel from Yoelknits. Part 1 is about how to get started, part 2 iss how to deal with huge bundles of yarn, part 3 is how to deal with little bits of yarn, and part 4 is how to avoid running into the horror of running out of yarn mid-project.
Cap robots by Wilis Ramos
Fabulous selection of robots – each one unique – from the Caps robots blog by Wilis Ramos
Eco robots
Examples of plastic recycled robots by Marcial Vargas from Eco robots.reciclo
Sewing Crazy Quilts from Men’s Ties
Carla from Trashmagination gives a detailed insight into how she sources, washes and processes ties to craft with.
More uses for Eucalyptus oil
Information from Bosistos Eucalyptus oil producer, Australia
You can use it for cleaning brushes, degreasing as well as removing adhesive labels.
Using eucalyptus oil to remove stickers and labels…
Who knew Eucalyptus oil could be so versatile?
A blog post by Kara from The Practical Frog Blog
Carpet samples dry mop
A student project at SCRAP Humboldt to find a way to add value to carpet samples. Features 3D printing.
I was also interested in looking at the criteria used to define the project.
Make your own reusable party pennants!
Quick, simple, washable and endlesslly reusable. What’s not to like?
Blog post by Kara from The Practical Frog Blog
How to fix a cheap plastic washing basket!
A longer-life for a plastic basket
A blog post by Kara from the Practical Frog Blog
Basketry
Some excerpts from Lois Walpole’s blog about Basketry.
How to Rate a Recycled Craft
A very interesting article about how to rate a craft activity, with a focus on kids crafts.
Blog post by Carla from Trashmagination
Bottle Cap Shakers, Throwers and Crashers
WOW – these look such fun!
Spinners, shakers, crashers from collected bottle cap plastics by Alex Lockwood
Garden of lottery tickets
Amazing folded flowers made from folded used lottery tickets that Alexlockwood finds on the ground in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York.
Octopus (or Squid) Made from Recycled Plastic Caps
Designed by Carla from Trahmagination
Collection: Plastic bottle cap robots
Image search – various makers, Robots made mainly from plastic caps.
Zero waste Restaurant
The story of one chef and his efforts to change the UK food industry waste.
Video by England your England
Collection: Crocheted Containers
Gallery of crocheted containers from various sources
Upcycle DIY! Crocheted neon containers!
Eyecatching designs and I love the Life of Popeye ethos.
Instructions by PopeyeTalks-Life of Popeye
Tutorial – Recycled Plastic Bottle Bag
Using plastic vinegar bottles. Instructions with ideas for variations
By Mine Full
surprising and delightful – sculptures in susanne schmidt’s studio
Love these vases – such variety. I can’t find anything else about Susanne Schmit from Dusseldorf on the internet.
Blog post by Todd Hosfelt
Bag made from plastic water bottles
Made by crocheting 3 water bottles together
Video by Crafty Paty (in Spanish)
Little Crocheted Jug project from the 70’s!
I love the look of this container – perfect for marbles.
Instructions by Susan
Bleach Bottle Toy Tote
Clear instructions by Little Chuck
Recycling Idea for Plastic Bottles
Instructions by Petra
(I have included only the English, as I expect non-English speakers would already being using Google translate here.)
PET & Co.
Instructions and examples from Subus, Germany (translated by Google)
I like the addition of a drawstring
Coin purse – recycling bottle cap
Tiny coin purses from a plastic bottle cap. Instructions by Tania Romualdo
Recycle, recycle, recycle…
Interesting to see how cut woven sacking turned out.
Handmade by Tania Romualdo, Krio-Linhas
CD bag
Sweet little bag with basic instructions
by Tania Romualdo
Crochet hooks with a new look (recycling/customisation)
Improved and repaired crochet hooks
Post by Tania Romualdo
Recycled packaging
Many posts by Tania Romualdo using different plastics to crochet into containers.
Plastic bottles crochet
So lovely and bright – Plastics Crochet Artist Magda van der Vloed
DIY Eco-Friendly Aluminum Dinosaur Toy Storage Bag
This is just fun!
Video by 安生仔 An Sang Tsai
Artcycling Guide – Instructions for sustainable art and design production
PDF by Editors: Oleg Koefoed & Stine Avlund, Cultura21
“A guide to becoming an artcycler: a maker of beautiful things that keep the world healthy”
The beginning of this publication reads: “This version is intended for internal non-commercial and educational use
only, by the involved partners. Not to be distributed to third parties.” But they have made it available to the general public nonetheless.
Recycled Art as a tool for the recovery process of people with mental illness
A pdf by Fundación INTRAS, Artcycling project
Encompasses history of art therapy. mental health and the arts, some examples of artists, and details of arts mental health festivals arond the world.
PET bottle orbs
The work of Eduard Aldrovandi
Braided loop chains
Examples by Eduard Aldrovandi
PET bottle loops braided together to make chains – polyester stuffing?
A guide to identifying different types of plastics and preparing them for recycling.
A PDF by Zoë Lenkiewicz and Mike Webster – WasteAid UK & CIWM
I found this advice very practical – How to identify common types of plastic
Inflatable Amnesty
Wyatt and Jack® are a sustainable British Brand, making bags and accessories from inflatables, up cycled vintage deckchair canvas and broken bouncy castles.
CD Case Greenhouse
Tutorial by Meg
A use for this mostly unrecyclable plastic
Insider Secrets for Successful Found-Object Sculptures
An article by Kelly Phillips who teaches elementary TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behaviour) with plenty of practical tips for creating an environment for student-led creativity. I particularly like the poster of attachment methods.
Sock loop weaving
Fabulous mats and cushions made from recycled socks – by Perry
Reverse/closed weave
Sculptural shapes using the type of windmill loop with no holes – by Perry
Woven Canvases
Weaving by Perry
Toilet roll canvases – so many possiilities
Voxel unit-weaving with singly-folded weavers
Weaving by James Mallos
Another look at windmill loop from a mathematicians point of view.
O-Knitting
I can’t pretend to understand much of the mathmatical basis of Windmill Loop – James Mallos has a blog packed with computer based weaving. Is interesting to see the basic 3 loops explained with different terminology. There is also different ideas on unit weaving/nexorades – weaving short elements together. If you know your vertices from your voxels it could be useful.
Weaving donuts and pattern pieces
Mary is trying to understand the twist of windmill loop by drawing it out.
Urban capping
Inspired by urban knitting, written by Freddy Vulto in 2011 – I don’t know if it caught on, but it still could,
Fly curtains made of plastic bottle caps
Cap curtains with bold designs by Freddy Vulto
Concise intructions.
Plastic bottle chandeliers
By Michelle Brand
Bottle bases linked together with garment ties to create window screens and lighting.
3 quick bottle cutters
Comparison of hacks to make a PET string bottle cutter from pencil sharperners, a plastic bottle ring and scissors, and a bottle top and knife. A stand to keep the bottle upright seems to help. In Russian.
By Левша Уральский (Lefty Ural)
Borromean Rings and Cubes
Examples by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer.
These cubes could be used as baubles or gift wrap.
Hexaflexagon Cushions
Folding and unfolding hexaflexagons and hexaflexacubes – crocheted and knitted versions.
Examples by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer
How to: Fabric Hexaflexagons
Another flexagon design with stiffened felt.
Tutorial by Annie Perkins
Fabric Rotating Ring Flexagon
Tutorial by Guillaume Riesen showing how to make a flexagon out of fabric. Comforting and addictive fiddling – geometry in motion! Includes another set of instructions by a quilter,
No-Cost Crampons
Tutorial by Waldemar Sha
Cool use of 3 way windmill loop.
Embracing “the logic of the weave.”
A couple of examples of a ‘planar net’ using windmill loop. Much of Alison’s work utilises hexagonal mesh structures and complex mathmatical forms. I was interested in her background of weaving with bamboo.
How to weave a harakeke whetu (flax star) for Matariki
Text instructions by Anna Subritzky for these flax stars with a little of the background of the tradition. I’m interested to find out what I can substitute harakeke for, here in Europe.
Tetra Bags
Range of bags and pouches by Lakshytta Gupta made using strips cut and woven from used Tetrapaks, using 1:8 ratio windmill loop.
Windmill loop Cubes and Doughnuts
Mary Crabb During has been taking part in Forces in Translation online event ‘Looping and….’ exploring the interface between basketry, mathematics and anthropology. using windmill loop she looked at topology, curvature of surfaces, and particular the fact that a doughnut has zero curvature.
Tedi, the Windmill Loop Dog
Mary Crabb’s trials and results from instructions on how to weave a windmill loop dog.
Just Plastic Bags Crochet
Brigitte specialises in crocheting plastic bags of all types.
I love the ranges of colours she works with. The narrative of her works gives a good insight to the processes involved.
8-Pointed Star by Javier Caboblanco
Diagram instructions of 8 point star by Javier Caboblanco.
Origami Modular 8-Pointed Star
Photo instructions of how to make an origami 8 point star by Qunying
Windmill Braiding
Windmill Knot weave by Outi Honkimaa and Seija-Sisko Mustonen
Tuulimyllypunonta translates as Windmill Braiding in Finnish
From Socks to Potholders: a Favorite Craft Makes a Comeback
History of American woven potholders – originally made from waste from the sock manufacturing industry – and can still be made by recycling your old socks.
Weaving a form
By M Kocureck
I wouldn’t have thought of weaving around a plastic object for shape and strength. I wonder how it would wear?
Bow bins
by Verena Stella Gompf and Cordula Kehrer
I this would look great if used as a repair method instead of artistic statement – it would give added value and meaning.
Transplastic
by Fernando and Humberto
Though I expect these were made from new, the idea of repairing commonplace plastic chairs in this way appeals.
How to make an apron out of a pair of Levis
Tutorial by Kimbo
Jeans apron design with one piece for the neck strap and fastening tape. Includes video.
How to Make a Kid’s Apron from Your Old Jeans
Tutorial by Jackie Currie from Happy Hooligans
Make 2 aprons from 1 pair of jeans.
Sea beads
by Lois Walpole
Ropes are separated to obtain nylon filaments which are the core of braided ropes. The balls are made by stitching and rolling.
Plaited Tetra Pak Garland
Instructions by Lois Walpole for a plaited garland that packs into a neat, solid tube that takes up little space. Can also be made from palm leaves, coloured paper, plastics, bark, leather and more.
Thoughts on Research
As part of her writing about her research into the Shetland basket making tradition, Lois makes some interesting points about the process of research in her work. Abridged post.
Lois Walpole on weaving with Cardboard
Lois talks about using cardboard, how she gave up using paint in her work and the availability of coloured boxes.