Thursday, March 26, 2009


This was one of my "funner" ideas. While working as a barrista at a coffee shop I became aware of the amount of milk bottle caps that I alone threw away. I learned that many municipal recycling programs throughout the United States still do not accept plastic lids, tops and caps, even though they take the containers that accompany them. The reason is that lids typically are not made from the same kind of plastic as their containers, and therefore should not be mixed together with them. So instinctively I started saving the lids - o so many lids! I even got my family to save them, my scouts were saving them even friends of family were saving them. Very very soon I had MANY lids. I had to come up with something to do with these lids! So I made some purses! My first ones were, mm a little "amateur" in design so they went to my nieces. My first better design was purchased by a great friend and this piece made it to my Etsy shop. I have many more caps to re-create into great pieces.

5 comments:

Polly said...

How cute it is! I can now see how your blog got its name. Who in the world (besides you) would ever think to make purses from bottle caps?! So unique. I am wondering how the caps are held together and are they fabric covered?

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

What a brilliant idea!

Recreationalart said...

The purse is basically done as a gigantic weave. 4 holes were drilled into each cap and wire runs through the whole thing, this is what keeps it in its rigid form. The caps are original color - not covered. The fabric comes out of my mothers chest of fabrics from 30 to 40 years ago. I was lucky enough to find a fabric that matched the caps I wanted to use in this piece. The pull cord is an upcycled lanyard. Thanks for looking!!

Sara said...

I love that idea! I would never have thought of it!
Have a great day
Sara

Astro Galaxy said...

Thank you for visiting my blog.
It's wonderful how you made all these together! The bag is also nice looking and I like the colours combinations too!
I've created your link at my blog!
Cheers!