Recycle, eh

Today was Canada Day and we celebrated with the usual beverages and at the end of the day I was left with a lot of bottles and bottle caps to recycle. The bottles went straight into the glass recycling bin but what to do with the bottle caps? Here's what a quick search on the net got me. 

Bottle Cap Beads

Cathy Collison of Glass Garden Beads solders bottle caps together to make bottle cap beads.

Bottle Cap Mosiac

Blair and Peter from the Wise Craft blog created a beautiful floor mosaic for a client. 

Bottle Cap Magnets

Marilyn P. Sushi makes fridge magnets by recycling soda pop and beer bottle caps and even shows you how with some ephemera and resin.

There are probably oodles more if you are interested. Get those bottle caps out and get recycling.

Does this look like art material?

A teacher friend of mine who teaches art in an elementary school is thinking of changing careers because budget cuts have made it impossible to provide enough art material for her classes. She wants to paint a large mural in the art classroom wall but has no funds for paints or brushes. I remembered seeing a large mural once at a school in New York City that was made up entirely of milk bottle caps but looked like a mosaic. Plastic bottle caps are a pain because they can't be put into the plastic recycling bin and this seemed like a great project for her classes.

I suggested that if she could get all the kids to start saving up their milk, water, and juice bottle tops, these could be used as material for a mural that would provide the kind of challenge the kids needed about recycling. It would also show parents and school administrators that art is an essential learning tool for teaching children not just about art but about resources, too.

I'm hoping to post a picture of the kids in action soon!

I'm an Etsy shopkeeper and I am constantly blown away by what some of my fellow sellers make. Jen of BottleCapjen creates the neatest jewelry from bottle caps of all things. I often see bottle caps discarded, squished on the streets where I live but it would never have occurred to me that you could recycle them as jewelry! Here is one of her brilliant ideas--a bracelet made from Coke bottle caps.

Now, who says you can't make something from nothing. Visit Jen's Etsy store to see more of her wonderful work.