Recycled Vinyl Record Bowls

I just finished working with the 4th graders at Westside Elementary School.  The students worked in groups to paint vinyl records that had been discarded from their school library.

We talked about Aboriginal Dot painting and looked at original paintings done by my dad, Bill Oyen.

The students designed their paintings then worked in groups to paint the records and finish by adding dots.

Once the students finished painting the records, I brought home them home to slump over a metal bowl in my oven.

To do this at home, set the oven to 225 degrees.  Place the record painted side up over a metal bowl.  Put the bowl on a cookie sheet to easily put it in and take it out of the oven.

Let the bowl heat for about 5-7 minutes.  It may not slump on it's own, but it will be pliable at this point.  The metal bowl and cookie sheet will be hot to the touch, but the record will be warm.  You can use a pair of tongs, or even use your hands to push the record into the metal bowl to form it.  It will cool   and re-harden within minutes.

Vinyl wallets

I like to try and reuse items to make into something new. I came up with vinyl covered wallets that are made from found objects. I started with using scrapbooking paper since it comes in such wonderful patterns. Once I got my technique down, I started experimenting with other types of paper too. I found that making wallets with paint chips... you know the ones you can get for free at the paint stores... made wonderfully colorful wallets. I went crazy gathering up paint chips each time I was near the paint section! How many of those can you take as free samples before it becomes a problem? I guess I will be the first to find out.

When making these wallets I ran into two problems. Finding a sewing machine that wanted to sew through two layers of vinyl and two pieces of paper. My firs sewing machine was too whimpy and once I got a new (used) machine, it found that sewing through such thick material was no problem. I also learned that I needed to use thread with polyester blend or the thread was keep breaking on me... My other problem was finding a snap that was heavy enough to go through all of the layers, but not too big and bulky that it was overwhelming for the wallets. I finally settled on "colored snaps". These worked better than the fun pearl snaps that I loved so much.

I have started experimenting with other fun "paper" to make wallets from such as Bingo cards, flash cards, vintage book pages, vintage wallpaper. I am having so much fun with these. I can't wait to see what else will become my latest wallet.