04/11/2012 - Sparkly Z Necklace

SCRAP had gotten in a donation of sparkly charms and they had a lot of "Z"s. I though it would be cute to make a stretchy bracelet for Zoe to wear...but she did not approve and insisted she only wanted one "Z". She also asked me where the "O" and "E" were. Isn't she...wait for it...charming?

Reclaimed Material: rubber, sparkly "Z" charm, necklace clasp
Other Material: jewelry wire
Tools: scissors, safety pin, jewelry pliers

How I did it: For the necklace, I did a round braid to fit Zoe. I slid on the sparkly "Z" to the center of the necklace before I added the closures. I slid the jewelry clasp over the wire and made a loop and pulled it through an opening at one end of the braid (about 1/4" down) so the clasp came out the end and enough wire was left hanging out of the opening. I wound the extra wire up to the end, trimmed the excess and tucked in the end of the wire. I did the same thing on the other end, except I didn't add a clasp and I made a double loop a little bit bigger than the other side.

What I would do differently: I did try to incorporate the charm into the braid, but it didn't look quite right. I think a thinner braid would be much better, but this size works for my picky little diva.

03/13/2012 - Round Decorative Tin

More goodies, courtesy of my sister. She gets the nicest and fanciest garbage! I think I am jealous. She gave me a bunch of ribbon and tulle, along with little metal flowers that were packaging for something she bought. The little container said "party eyelashes" -- ooooh la la, so I had to figure out a way to cover up the words.

Reclaimed Material: metal tin, metal flower
Other/New Material: none
Tools: paint pen, glitter glue, push pin

How I did it: I used a gold paint pen to cover the words on the lid. Once the paint dried, I put a dab of glitter glue on the end of each petal. I used a push pin to make a hole in the center of the lid (plastic). The little metal bauble had a little knob on the back which I pushed through the hole in the lid.

What I would do differently: I should have been a little neater with the paint pen on this, but overall I am happy with how this turned out.

03/07/2012 - Number Wind Chime

My homage to the first home Jason, Zoe and I had together. When we were getting the house ready for sale, we changed out the house numbers to help boost our "curb appeal". I wanted to take a nice picture of this hanging outside, but living in Oregon, the rain has not allowed that yet.

Reclaimed Material: metal numbers, bike cog, brake wire
Other/New Material: none
Tools: metal clippers, pliers

How I did it: I cut two pieces of the brake wire--which I had untwisted and used a couple strands for each number because there are about 30 different metal threads on each piece of brake wire. I threaded both pieces of wire through the holes in the cog so they were evenly spaced then attached the numbers to each end of the two strands, staggering them in the house number order - 4715. I took another strand of the wire and used it to make a hanger for the wind chime. 

What I would do differently: I think some kind of chain would have worked better than the wire.

02/11/2012 - Tree Pendant

I really love working with metal bicycle parts and I have been trying to come up with ways to use them without any welding knowledge. I am not sure how I am going to end up using this piece, but I am happy with how the front turned out!

Reclaimed Material: bicycle cog, bicycle brake wire 
Other/New Material: none
Tools: heavy duty metal snipper, pliers

How I did it: The first thing I did was to thread the brake wire through 4 holes on one side of the cog. I only used two pieces of wire so I threaded each wire in a U-shape between two holes. Brake wire is made up of many little wires, and those little buggers are very sharp. I got a few metal splinters when I was digging through the box at the bike shop I got them from. I used the pliers to untwist each of the wires that make up the brake line to separate them. This was a little more difficult than I anticipated. Once all of the tiny wires were separated I bunched them together and twisted them together at the base as tightly as I could with the pliers to make the "trunk" of the tree. I then grouped smaller sections of the wire to make the "branches" and pulled the ends of the wire through the holes along the top of the cog. After the tree design was complete I twisted the wire together in a circle behind the metal part of the cog to make sure no sharp wires were sticking out.
 
What I would do differently: The only thing I am not completely satisfied with is the back of the pendant with the wires leftover from tree. I need to figure out a good way to hold the wires so that this can be used as a pendant. For now I think I will make a small frame to mount this on.

02/08/2012 - Metal Box Frame

I am trying to make a rubber inner tube basket for a project my sister-in-law is working on, so this was my first attempt at making the frame for it. It isn't necessarily a failure, but not a success in regards to what I am trying to accomplish. My original thought was to use wood but found metal pieces at SCRAP that I thought would work. I am proud of myself for getting this far with metal without having the appropriate metal working tools, but maybe someday I will be an expert welder/metal fabricator.

Reclaimed Material: aluminum pieces from SCRAP, screws, nuts
Other/New Material: none
Tools: metal snippers, ruler, marker, screwdriver, pliers

How I did it: The dimensions of the basket are 14"x11"x7" so I measured and marked 4 of each size. The metal pieces were 15" long each so for the 14" pieces I measured .5" from each end and the metal was pliable enough to bend those pieces at the marks. I measured the smaller pieces so that the holes that were already drilled (the pieces looked like they were part of a filing cabinet) lined up when I put them together. I was able to use metal snippers to cut the metal down to the other sizes I needed. I used a screw and nut (they were in a little cabinet I got from a garage sale) in each corner to secure it.


What I would do differently: I tried multiple ways to attach the rubber inner tubes to the metal but to no avail. I went to the fabric store and found rivets, but didn't look at the price closely and thought they were $2.99 for a pack of 24, but they were $8.99 -- I am too much of a cheapskate to spend that much money. I tried a couple other things too, but as you can see by the picture, nothing worked. I think I can use this frame for another material I come across for a later project.

02/07/2012 - Zipper Pull Jewelry

One thing I am going to miss being away from Chicago is Swap-O-Rama-Rama (if it is still going on) because of their great motto "creators not consumers". It is so easy to discard things once they are broken or we are tired of them. The zipper pull broke off my Timberland fleece (not that I would discard it), so I decided I would give it a little pizazz by making my own zipper pull. Plus Zoe noticed the pull was missing and she cutely noticed the new one I made.

Reclaimed Material: random metal bits, broken bracelet
Other/New Material: jewelry wire
Tools: pliers, pencil

How I did it: I chose the random bits of metal that I wanted to use - a little key, a metal oval from a piece of clothing, a zipper pull from a scrapped sweater, and little baubles from a broken bracelet. I wrapped the jewelry wire around the pencil twice to make the ring to put the items on and attach it to the zipper. I used the pliers to tamp down the ring to make it stronger (and also snip the wire) after I put it on the zipper.

What I would do differently: Not much to do differently with this except use different pieces. I was going to add a few more bits, but it seemed like overkill for a fleece.

01/20/2012 - Keepsake Tin

Altoids® tins are quite wonderful...first they are filled with a curiously strong mint, then you are left with a handy little contraption that has all sorts of uses and they are fully recyclable. My collection of the tins has grown over the years and I kept thinking, one of these days I will make something fun with those. The original plan was to build my house work robot, but I am just sticking to decorating it for keepsakes for now.


Recycled Material: Altoids® tin, metal scraps, random bits from SCRAP, #2 plastic lid
Other Material: spray paint, paint pen
Tools: painter's tape, hot glue gun, scissors, cardboard box or newspaper


How I did it: I used the painter's tape to tape down the overlapping edge on the bottom of the tin where the lid closes then used leftover black spray paint to paint the outside of the tin and let it dry. While it dried, I used another Altoids® tin as a template to trace the raised border on the lid onto the plastic lid. It was helpful that I could see the border through the lid and marked and cut the border shape, the trimmed the piece a little bit smaller than the tin border. I was going to leave the blue lid as it was, but ended up using a gold paint pen to color it because my random scraps had a gold-ish theme. Once the tin was dry, I used the gold paint pen to paint the raised border on the tin. I hot glued the plastic piece to the tin and let it set. After arranging the random bits, I hot glued the pieces on and let them set. The tape was removed and I let the tin dry completely. There was a hot glue blob that escaped from under the plastic and when I pulled it off, some of the black paint came up with it. This worked out because I ended up making random scratches on the paint to go with the worn look of the decorative pieces.

What I would do differently:  The nice thing about this project is that there are so many ways to do this differently. This could be done as a kid's craft by gluing paper over the brand cover or painting it by hand. Just about anything can be used to decorate the tin. I am happy with the scraps I found and used and they are meant to represent what can be stored in the tin. Lots of fun and I recommend giving this a try with your own spin!