YouTube Soda tab bracelet tutorial

We were sent a link to a great tutorial, how to make a soda tab bracelet, the black cameo ribbon bracelet is pretty cool!

The value of recycled craft

Some of you may be aware that Recycled Market’s co-founder, Erica, makes her own recycled crafts, which is one of the reasons Recycled Market exists today.

A few weeks ago, Erica participated in Megan Bayliss’ Junk Wave workshop in Melbourne, and was taught a technique of handcrafting bags from food packaging.  Here is Erica’s completed bag:

Although Megan can complete a bag within three hours, Erica’s bag took the best part of a week to complete. Once a new technique is mastered, of course the completion time will reduce, but this did leave us with a thought, we have the following upcycled food packaging bags for sale on Recycled Market which are really good value for money, considering the time taken to handcraft them.

Other upcycled food packaging bags available to buy on Recycled Market include L’air de Rien’s milk carton tote bags..

If one raises questions as to the cost of goods made with recycled material, one must also consider the time taken to create the end product.

A lot of time is spent sourcing and cleaning old and used materials, whether that be food packaging, fabric, vinyl, wood, metal or otherwise.  A great deal of time is spent making the end piece, and then there is the additional time-consuming process of presenting the item for sale, which for many artists is the hardest part of all.

Using recycled material may reduce the initial cost of obtaining material, but one must consider the additional factors involved when buying a recycled product.  Recycled products have far greater value for our planet’s natural resources than buying a new ‘cheaper’ product, which may also raise questions as to the (un) ethical conditions with which the product has been made.

Recycled Weekly News #3

This week’s recycled news sourced from around the net, bought to you by Recycled Market

10 Simple Ways To Upcycle found here

A garden rake-turned-necklace or scarf holder found here

Upcycled wine bottle chandelier seen here

* The PaperChair is an eco-friendly chair made from 100% recycled materials, including expired flour and old newspapers seen on inhabitat.com

* Upcycled bird feeders made with found objects found on JunkMarket

* Recycled Mardi Gras beads make worlds largest mosaic seen here

“Landfills are being filled with up to 25 million pounds [of beads] every year. Multiply that by all of the Gulf Coast and you have an environmental tragedy at our front door,” said Stephan Wanger, an artist who reuses the beads in his mosaics.

* Lastly, could edible bottles soon replace plastic?  WikiCells is an edible material created from a biodegradable polymer or plastic and food particles. Essentially, it is an egg-like membrane hard shell. It can be filled with a variety of flavours, including orange juice, wine or chocolate.  The product, a membrane created using a biodegradable plastic combined with food particles, could either be peeled off or potentially eaten whole.  More on that story here

Cookie Cutters from Recycled Soda Cans

Now here’s a recycling idea which is great for kids, or kids at heart!  No need to buy new cookie cutters from a retail outlet, instead, obtain empty soda drink cans, clean well, flatten, cut into strips, and shape into cookie cutters.

Image c/o DIY Home Sweet Home Project

Miss Anthropists Kitchen shows us how to make recycled soda can goldfish cookie cutters…

Image c/o Miss Anthropists Kitchen

Lastly, Patti The Carbivore shows how to create a DIY pie cookie cutter with a printed image, and an aluminum baking pan, this could be replicated with a recycled soda can too.

Images c/o Patti The Carbivore

Nice use for recycled aluminum cans, yes?