Friday, December 17, 2010

A lime green bangle.

Hello again!  Doncha love the color of these bangles?



What do you think they used to be?  The answer is pretty basic, so I won't make you guess.  (This time, bwah ha ha!)  Check it:




Plastic drinking cups from - say it with me - the dollar store.  They were three for a buck, such a glorious color and with cool sort of shimmery facets.





How'd I make the bangles?  Hmm.  I have to say, it was a little trickier than anticipated.  I had some strange adventures trying to cut them.  First, my husband tried a bandsaw.





It worked for a couple of bangles, then - bang!  The cup 'sploded, sending shards flying across the room.  So next he tried a pull saw.



I got a couple more bangles that way, but it wasn't too smooth.  Next we tried an exacto knife.  It worked okay, but the plastic still wanted to crack.  By then he was pretty tired of helping me and let me know I was on my own.  I discovered:





The best method was probably a pair of scissors.  D'oh.  Next time, I'll start with that.  (I used strong gardening scissors - don't try it with anything too wimpy.  These cups were pretty tough.)



I smoothed out the edges with sandpaper and called it a day.  Tally so far: five bangles, lots of pretty shards, two nifty round cup bottoms and a whole cup left over.





Gonna make more stuff with the remaining material, but for now, pretty pleased with the bangles.



Okee doke - see you next time around.


p.s.  A happy Pupdate: Gertie, Stitch and Albert, three of the rescue dogs I was sponsoring, have all been adopted!  W00t!!  There is still one pup left, and she is lovely - to see Star the Pit Bull and learn about my Pupsicle Action Plan, you can click that link up at the top of the page.

15 comments:

  1. The bangles are cool! And you could drill small holes into it with your dremel tool to create ornaments ^^

    Good to hear with stich and albert! :)

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  2. What great news about Stitch and Albert! They will be home for Christmas!!!!

    Love the bangles. Love them. I saw those same drinking glasses at my dollar tree and nearly bought them but I didn't, bc, well, I don't need more glasses. BUT I ALWAYS NEED MORE BANGLES.

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  3. Fun bangles. Love the colour.
    Glad to hear some of the pups found new homes.
    Sophie

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  4. love love love!

    take the bases and embed objects in resin for nifty pendants, I've been playing with resin a bit and find it very challenging - would love to see you try it out as you are the most fearless crafter I know!

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  5. Oh yes, you did it again. If at first you don't succeed, try scissors, of course. It's pretty cool that you get several different sizes from these nifty cups. Love that color.

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  6. Sounds like an adventure. :)

    He went quite the distance with you!!

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  7. great news on the doggie front!

    neat bangles! i see you're going to keep us in suspense here. that's okay i'll check in at a later date!

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  8. ooof...it was the first time i was able to guess that what is the mystery product but..hahaha...you write & show clearly...well the color is really coool..love the bangles,if the glass was little printed so it will be more smart...
    btw congrats to you & puppies too...

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  9. GREAT NEWS for the pups!!!!!

    Love the bangles and the colors. AND you have some leftover material for over projects...always cool...

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  10. LOL I am glad it wasn't the mystery thing, I was lost. How cool are they? You could use them as blanks to do all kinds of things to them!
    So happy for the pups, they all deserve it. I would love to have Star, she is adorable as can be! Betcha she will have a new home soon, too.

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  11. You're out of control. We really need to go shopping together because I don't think either of us buys anything for its intended purpose. And yeah, that's a fantastic color!

    If I wasn't on the other side of the country, Star would be all mine.

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  12. Very clever. Great use of a cheap cup.

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  13. This project just fascinates me, and I just keep wondering if one of those melty-cutter-thingies, like you use for cutting quilting patterns out of plastic would work to cut this plastic? Like a soldering iron kind of thingamajigger? Or a woodburning watchamacallit? Hmmm, I think I'll stop typing -- all this technical jargon might be too much for some people....

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  14. You know what I love about your jewellery? I love that you take those things which are just around - packaging or dollar store stuff - and which some people notice the beauty of and some people don't - and you find a way to isolate and highlight that beauty and make it into something wearable.

    Or, to say the same thing with different words: Industrialization has made it possible to make really very cool materials very cheap, so they become disposable and therefore their beauty can be overlooked. You see the coolness and force us to see it too by fashioning it into something which exists only for aesthetic reasons: jewellery. That is awesome! Hooray for you!

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