Monday 24 October 2011

Empty "water & cold drink" plastic bottles...USED...!!


How I came up with this idea? Here is the story...

I have a habit of storing things which are meant to be thrown away after their usage...like the egg cartons, coconut shells, cold drink & water bottles, silver foil and the list goes on...!! I guess I got this habit from my father.
One day I was looking at this ever increasing trash of mine and decided to get rid of the water & cold drink plastic bottles. While stuffing the bottles to dispose them, an idea struck! Why not make some colourful flowers & a vase out of these??  


First, I studied all the bottles and what followed this is as below:

Soak all bottles in soap water overnight. Removing the stickers and the glue will be much easier by doing this. Next morning remove the stickers and wash them thoroughly. Let the bottles dry.  



Starting with the vase now…!! I prefer the sprite bottle for its green colour but you can take a big bottle of any colour. Now cut 1/4th of the bottle from top. To be more precise you can cut the bottle from top from where the sticker starts.


Wrap a measuring tape around the bottle. Now mark and cut evenly spaced (will be approximately 1 inch) strips down from the top of the bottle about 3 inches long. We need thin strips so divide each strip into 3 equal parts and again cut it down from the top of the bottle about 3 inches long. Repeat this with all the other strips as well so as to get thin even strips all the way round the bottle.


Now carefully bend the strips outward making a level edge on the top of the bottle. Turn the bottle upside down and press it against a flat surface to make sure the rim is even.


Now weave (bend outward and crease) one strip over the one next to it and then under the following two so that its tip is at the base of the third strip.


Continue weaving the strips in the same pattern. Once you are done with the weaving, place some pebbles or stones inside the bottle to weigh it so that it doesn't fall over. Your vase is ready..!!


Now the flowers…Cut the bottom most part of the bottles. Colour them with oil or acrylic paints. After the paint dries cut each into five or 6 equal parts. Plastic turns into irregular shapes when it is burnt.



So burn the edges of each part such that you get the shape of a petal. A small tip here- To get the petal shape burn the extreme left and right sides of each part a little more.
Warning- Cover your mouth and nose while burning the plastic bottles. The gases eliminating while burning are harmful for health. 


Now use your creative ideas to beautify the flowers. You can use small mirrors, sequences or kundan.  Here I have used sparkle glue. Do not do anything in the center because the stem has to be inserted here.

 
Take an iron rod, heat it and insert it at the center to make a very small hole. Insert the broom stick immediately through the hole. You should be very quick while doing this. The stick should be inserted when the plastic surrounding the hole is still hot so that it sticks with the broom stick.


The broom stick should be a thick and strong one because it has to take the weight of the flower. You can colour the stick or keep it raw and simple. Now you can put sparkle glue or sequences in the center of the flower so that the stick which is peeping from the hole gets hidden.
Once the glue dries up, arrange the flowers in the vase...



This was my first attempt with the plastic bottles. Will be back with some more creations soon…!!

 

2 comments:

  1. Wow ! How beautiful... Its difficult to believe that the green vase is made from a plastic bottle... I love the weaved work...!!

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  2. Thank you so much Emreen...I'm so happy to know that you loved it...Please keep visiting for more...!!

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