Michelle Brand is an environmental designer who specializes in upcycling plastic bottle bottoms into decor features. Michelle creates plastic bottle flowers by cutting and sanding the plastic bottle bases and tagging them together using a clothing attacher gun.
As an environmental designer, Michelle focuses on working with materials that others consider waste. By turning discarded plastic bottles into art, she challenges the notion that empty plastic bottles are useless. Michelle was drawn to plastic bottles as she find the pre-existing shape and material a challenge. She excels with the medium and uses the plastic bottle flowers to create iconic ceiling to floor pendant lights and flower walls.
In order to make a 6 foot cascade lamp Michelle must hand assemble 540 plastic bottles after first washing, drying, cutting and sanding them. To her the plastic bottle flowers are more than art and carry an educational message to consumers about reusing so-called waste material. Michelle believes consumers are becoming more environmentally savvy and are drawn to upcycled products as they are interesting and exciting. High-end USA chain Neiman Marcus carries her Cascade Lancashire chandelier range.
Make the Wreath: Gather an assortment of old-fashioned candies in autumnal shades such as yellow, orange, and magenta. Wrap a 14-inch foam wreath form in white ribbon. Attach candy with hot-glue, layering and overlapping as you go. Finish with a yellow burlap bow.
Assemble the records you want to upcycle. If you don’t have any oldies lying around then head over to your local thrift store and grab some for around a dollar a piece. We selected the classics: Madonna, Wham, Olivia Newton John and Swing Gently with Strauss.
(The latter apparently was not a hit sensation.)
Step 2
Preheat your oven to 100-120°C. That’s 200-250°F. Place an oven safe bowl, mug or metal colander on a baking sheet.
Step 3
Place your record on top of the oven safe bowl and put it in the oven. The side of the record placed directly on the colander will become the inside of the bowl. Bake your record for a few minutes and remove from the oven when the record starts to wobble and melt.
Step 4
Your record will be malleable for a few seconds only so work quickly, bending and pinching as you see fit. Careful, the record will be hot to the touch! If you want the record to stay still while you work, secure it to the bowl with a stick.
Step 5
You can hand mould your record bowls or push them into another bowl to form a new shapes. This is the time to experiment and try out new techniques. If you don’t like the results you can always pop your record back into the oven and melt the mistakes away.
Well done, you now have some rocking record bowls!
Day of the Dead is coming up on Sunday and Monday. We set up our alter last weekend and are beginning to decorate it with candles, incense, and pictures of loved ones who have passed. Today I will place a little jar of salt on the alter to represent the earth and to cleanse the spirit. The final piece will be the colorful addition of large paper flowers.
In Mexico, enormous fresh marigolds in red, orange, and yellow are used to decorate the graves and alters but paper flowers are also popular and are often strung together to make elaborate garlands which are draped overhead and along the edges of the gravestones.
I am not, not, not a crafter so believe me when I tell you they are very simple to make. All you need is one package of colorful tissue paper and some pipe cleaners. 15 sheets of tissue paper and 15 pipe cleaners should make about 15 flowers.
Take one sheet of tissue paper and cut it in half, then cut that piece in half two more times until you have several sheets that are about 8-inches long x 4-inches wide. This doesn’t matter too much—the bigger the sheets, the larger the flowers. Stack 8 pieces of cut tissue paper together (you can use all the same color or multiple colors).
Starting on the short end make a 1/2-inch thick fold.
Flip the tissue paper over so the folded side is down and then take the folded piece up and fold it again so now the fold is on the top, like an accordion. I wonder how many times I can use the word fold in a sentence, hmmmm.
Keep working your way up, folding back and forth until all the tissue paper is folded.
Bend the pipe cleaner around the middle of the stack and twist to secure. This will be your stem.
Cut each edge, either in a triangular shape or rounded.
Then fan out the paper.
Now pull one layer of tissue paper at a time towards the middle, carefully peeling the pieces of paper apart to create a puffy flower.
Continue with the remaining pieces of tissue paper to make as many flowers as you like. You can even make gigantic ones to hang from the ceiling using full sheets of tissue paper.
For those of you celebrating Día de los Muertos, I hope your hearts are full of celebration this weekend. Cherish these days; share family stories, eat sweet yeasty bread, and leave a flower or two for those who can no longer walk with us on this earth, but who are waiting to show us the glorious world on the other side.
Mws R Writings 