Coke-cola Light!
1) Turn a bottle of Coke Light into a… light!
I recently came across some nice examples of jewellery made by melting recycled plastic in the oven – they really sparked my interest in using plastic as part of one of my craft projects. After a bit of trial and error I managed to create the lamp shown above from plastic party bowls, an empty bottle of Coke Light and a biscuit tin.
Although I was happy with the final result, I must confess, the plastic didn’t really behave like I was expecting. Instead of shrivelling and shrinking, the plastic bowls just went all limp and floppy – I think the plastic was too thick. In fact, I was so disappointed with the effect I nearly packed it in. However, after experimenting with the oven temperature I managed to get a bit of gentle twisting and warping, which I used to create a more subtle and elegant effect.
The biscuit tin was used to create the cover to the shade, and galvanised wire to create the light fitting support. Anyway, you’ll find fairly detailed instructions below – I had to gloss across some of the steps, but you should get the idea.
Please note: Because the light shade is made of plastic I’d advise using a low energy bulb – one that doesn’t get too hot. Also, be careful with the wiring – the stand is made of metal so everything needs to be well insulated (not one for the kids)!
Includes:
1) Collectable instructions – they are useful and they look good
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It took a while to find other nice examples of lights made from recycled plastic bottles, but I eventually came across Sarah Turners beautiful handmade lights. Go check them out.
