10 Ways to Reuse Vinyl Records

As promised, here is my list of 10 Ways to Reuse Vinyl Records.  I recently shared these tips at the Reuse Conex conference.  I can't give away ALL of my secrets, but these should get you inspired enough to give it a try.  Maybe you can make some cool holiday gifts.

 

1.  Paint a mandala.  You can see from my sign that it is really quite simple to design a mandala.  I always prime my record first, so I would suggest you start with a coat of primer to give it a nice even surface to paint on.  Usually after you've primed a record, you can still see the marks of concentric circles that exist on a record in the spaces where each song begins and ends.  You can use these concentric circles as guidelines for creating your design.  

Start in the center and work your way out, turning it as you go (I use a "lazy susan" turntable under my record), and just create patterns using basic shapes, building on each pattern until you reach the edge of the record.  Then you can go back and fill in with more shapes, and paint it with acrylic paints.  

You can draw your design with a pencil or pen.  I recommend not trying to erase much.  It's hard to erase pencil marks from the primer, and anyway you need to forget about trying to make it perfect and just do it.  Trust me, it will turn out beautiful even if all of your shapes are not exactly the same size and distance apart.  My mandalas are insanely imperfect all the time, but it does not matter.  

(If you need more instruction or if you are interested in exploring the meaning of mandalas and any spiritual symbolism that you might want to incorporate into your design, here are some links.)

There are two different ways that I create mandalas - the time-consuming way is to draw it, fill in each individual shape with paint, and then go back and outline.  That's how I do my complex pieces like this one:

The easier and much faster way is to draw the design with a permanent marker (I like Sharpie Paint Pens) and then paint directly over it.  I use blending medium or glazing fluid to create a "wash" of paint that won't dry quite so quickly - then I can blend colors together (I use a fan brush) and the mandala design will still show through the paint. That's how this one was done - I just swirled some cobalt turquoise and phthalo green over my design and blended it together:

After it dries, you can pick and choose areas that you'd like to go back and highlight by filling them in with an extra punch of color, like I did here:  

And that brings me to...
2.  Make a mandala clock.  Once you've painted a mandala on a record it is very easy to transform it into a functional wall clock! You can purchase single clock movements at craft supply stores such as Michaels. You might need to slightly widen the spindle hole in the record in order for the shaft to fit through it - this can be done easily with an X-acto knife.  If you want to have numbers on your clock, you need to make sure they are done properly and correctly spaced.  You could use any existing clock face to create your own template, or make your own.

3.  Make an unpainted clock. 

Well now this is just too easy!  Take a record and slap a clock movement on it and you are done!  I do this but only with my very special collection of vintage and antique (yes, some of them are more than 100 years old!) 78 rpm records (these records are 10" in diameter and are usually a bit thicker, heavier, and more brittle and easily breakable than 12" vinyl records, because they were made from a shellac-based compound).  I think that 78's are rare and lovely just as they are.  The titles, performers, logos, and even the scratches on the record all tell the story of a bygone era and I just can't bring myself to put any paint over that history.

I use white hands for these clocks - if you can't find white hands, you can always just hit the ones you've got with a little white spray paint.

Where to find 78 rpm records?  Look around - I have found them in "free boxes" on the side of the road.  You can check used record stores, thrift stores, garage sales, ebay, and the attics of any older people you may know. 

4.  Make a bowl


Here is the incredibly dorky video from my appearance on HGTV's "That's Clever."  I am making a Snowman Record Bowl, but you could do anything - a mandala bowl, or just an unpainted record that you want to make into a bowl.  In this video, I make the bowl in my oven, but I actually don't do that anymore - I use a heat gun.  Please make sure when heating records that you have good ventilation and protect your hands and face.  I always wear deerskin gloves and a respirator. 

5.  Make a cuff bracelet

Record cuffs are super easy to make.  Basically, I just chop up the record to create various sizes of vinyl strips which I then heat and shape around a mannequin wrist.  Then I sand all the edges.

I can get 8-12 cuffs out of a single record.  You can cut a record with heavy duty scissors or a guillotine-style paper cutter.  You can even use regular scissors if you just heat the record up a bit before cutting.  Experiment with different sizes and shapes.  If you don't have a mannequin you could use any sort of cylindrical item like a glass, bottle or can. 

Make sure to use a good flexible, newer vinyl record as opposed to an older record that is thicker and less easy to manipulate.

You can see all of my record cuffs here.

Jennifer Perkins of the Naughty Secretary Club has a great record cuff video tutorial here.  (She's my crafty hero!)

6.  Make a choker

This is very similar to the cuff except you will want to use a longer strip of record - the longest you can get it.  Use a ruler to mark out a 1" wide strip going all the way down the record, right up next to the label in the center and all the way to the top and bottom edges.  Then cut this strip, heat it, and experiment with wrapping it around a larger object so that it will go around your neck.  I used the "neck" part of a glass head.  This worked out perfectly.  The shape makes it cling to the neck even though it doesn't go all the way around it (although you could drill holes and link it up with some chain in the back if you want).  It is so lightweight that you can barely even feel it!  They kind of look like patent leather. I'm wearing one in this picture:

7.  Make beads for jewelry making 

Every time I cut up a record to make cuffs, I end up with these triangle shaped pieces from the four "corners" of the record.   I know, a record doesn't have any corners, but still, I end up with triangles.  After saving them for years I finally started making earrings out of them.  So easy!  Just take your scrap pieces, drill a small hole, and add jump rings and ear wires, or do some fancy wire wrapping if you like.  Above you see some of the simple earrings I've made from bits of black and colored vinyl records.  These ones were designed by my daughter and include vintage beads:  

I also have various hand painted earring designs.  You can check out all of my earrings here.

8.  Make a mirror (from a 45 rpm record)

The item above is very simple to make - it's just an unpainted 45 rpm record (a red one, which might be harder to find than the standard black - but they're out there!) with a mirror adhered at the back so that it peeks through the large spindle hole.  You can find 2" round mirrors at any craft supply store.  A good silicon glue will help make sure it sticks.

You can also paint your record first.  Here are some of my painted mirrors.  Mandalas are always great - but a peppermint candy theme is perfect for the holidays!

9.  Make a pinwheel for the garden 
















Okay, this is a bit more complicated but you can probably do it!  Just paint your mandala as described above, then use heat to slice into your record and form the "fan blades" (or whatever you want to call them).  It will take some practice but it's actually pretty easy.  Then stick it on the end of a metal stake and put something on the end to finish it, such as an old radio knob. 

You can learn lots more about my Mandala Pinwheels here and here and here.  Also, be sure to read the guest blog about the pinwheels that I wrote for Uncommon Goods.


10.  Make coasters from the album jacket
One thing about using lots of vinyl records - you end up with a lot of empty album jackets.  These can be reused to make all sorts of things such as journal covers, postcards, file folders like this one I got for Chuck, etc. etc.  Coasters are easy to make!

With a 12" album jacket you can get nine 4" x 4" squares.  You can keep all the pieces from one jacket together in a set (it's fun to put them together like a puzzle), or mix 'em up.

People often ask me if the coasters are "coated" with anything to help protect them, and the answer is no.  I prefer to keep them eco-friendly (not coated with plastic), so they may show wear and tear over time. When they start to wear out, you can just toss them into the recycling bin.  It just doesn't make sense to me to add plastic to something that is recycled and supposed to be earth friendly.

Bonus!  Here are even more ideas that I found on the web:

1. Hang them on the wall
2. Make a business card holder
3. Make a ring
4. Make a room divider
5. Make rock 'n' roll party decorations

If these don't work out for you, or you are strapped for time, remember you can order from the Eye Pop Art Etsy Shop and receive 20% off your entire purchase during the month of November with the coupon code PORTLAND.

If you do try out any of these projects, please let me know in the comments.  HAVE FUN!

Rasta Bowl & Local Goods

Here are a few shots of one of my new/old pieces. This is the "Rasta" record bowl. It's one of my oldest designs, but I've never gotten any decent photos of it until now.

I made one of these along with more bowls, clocks, and a whole bunch of cuffs for a new shop on E. Burnside here in Portland called Local Goods. Here are some pictures of the store, which specializes in local, sustainable products (no website yet, but you can be friends on facebook if you like):

Photos from the Beach, Good Morning America, and other news

Here are a few photos from our recent anniversary trip to the Oregon Coast. We had such a nice time - the weather was warm, sunny, and gorgeous. It was a very much-needed vacation - something we haven't done since our honeymoon 13 years ago.

In other news:

• I have added some of my spring line items to my Etsy shop - including new bowls and cuffs. Click over and have a look!
• I received a wholesale order from Frock - my Basic Black cuffs are now available there. Check out this awesome boutique at 1429 NE Alberta in Portland.
• The band played a fun inauguration party Tuesday night at Backspace here in PDX. If you haven't heard our tunes yet, have a listen on myspace: http://myspace.com/dartgun or http://myspace.com/andthevignettes. We were supposed to play a show last night up in Longview, WA but cancelled because Chuck got sick. Next show: Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Know, 2026 NE Alberta.
• One of my Feng Shui Mirrors made from an upcycled vinyl 45 rpm record (this purple one from Trillium's shop on World of Good by eBay) was actually seen on Good Morning America! They did a "Just one Thing" segment on eco-friendly decoration tips for the Obama girls' rooms in the White House, and included my little mirror. Here's a link to the video. You can't see it that well, but it's there! Here are a couple of screen shots:

Pretty cool, huh?

Eye Pop Art has also recently been featured by Artsy Rubbish and Green Living on Squidoo.

The Story of 100 Mandala Record Bowls

Today is the day, I am finally going to ship out my big wholesale order of 100 Mandala Record Bowls for Viva Terra. I worked on this order during September, October, and November, finished it on Thanksgiving Day, and now I can finally ship it (they wanted me to wait until after Christmas). After reading the vendor guidelines about 5o times, I am pretty sure I have done everything right with the packing list, box labels, etc., so all I need to do is get it dropped off and I can breathe a big sigh of relief to have it off my hands, allowing me to look ahead to my new spring line.

I have posted some of these pictures in previous blog entires, but I wanted to consolidate the entire process into one story, so here you go, this is how I did it.

I started out with lots and lots of vinyl records. I got a 4' x 8' board at the Home Depot and had them cut it in half to make two manageable 4' x 4' boards. I pounded nails into the board every 12" so that I could hang 16 records on each one. (Here's Julius.)

Then I sprayed the records, 32 at a time, with white primer.

I allowed the primer to dry.

I carefully sealed up the spindle holes of each record, and allowed that to dry.

Here is what a stack of 100 primed, sealed records looked like:

The next step was to paint the base coats. 50 of them were to be green, and 50 of them cream-colored. Each one took two coats of the base color, which meant a lot of drying in between times.

My best friend Melodie helped with the base-coat painting. Thanks, Melle!

Soon the disks were taking over the house. I didn't want to stack them, so it was a bit crazy for a while...

...until I went to Goodwill and got several of these vertical files, which saved the day.

So yeah, the next step (and the most time consuming!) was the painting of the mandala designs onto the record. That's a lot of the same mandala, over and over again. Each one was painted freehand, and a lot of them required two coats, too.

Once I finished the 50 green records, the next step was to form them into bowls, and each one was individually heated and sculpted by hand to make 50 groovy bowls.

The next step was to paint my signature on the bottom of each bowl. I used white and black paint to paint a psychedelic eyeball over each spindle hole, and to paint the words Eye Pop Art somwhere on the record label.

After that dried, I coated the bottoms of the bowls with a protective semi-gloss finish and allowed that to dry.

Then I flipped 'em and proceeded to do the same thing to the tops of the bowls.

Here are the 50 finished bowls, peeking out of their boxes.

Once the 50 greens were out of the way, I had to repeat the whole deal all over again, painting the same mandala design 50 times in green on the cream-colored records.

These also were heated, shaped, etc...

Vanna!

...and the bottoms were done...

...and the tops were done...

...and they were all wrapped in tissue paper and put to bed for a month.

These are the temporary boxes that the order has been living in for the last month. I have since repacked them uniformly into four large boxes, each containing 25 bowls.

Today the 100 bowls will go on a journey, and some time very soon they will make their appearance in the Spring 2009 catalog by Viva Terra! I can't wait to get a copy.