creative reuse

Make: Projects – Soda Can Label Embossing

Make: Projects – Soda Can Label Embossing

Positive response to the recent review of my antique Tapewriter label embosser got me thinking about lower-cost ways to make embossed aluminum labels. A comment from reader Rick Hyde (“Actually, the aluminum is so ductile that I bet any Dymo machine can emboss it.”) led me to wonder about feeding aluminum strip to one of […]

Continue Reading
Falcon Sculpted From CD Fragments

Falcon Sculpted From CD Fragments

It’s just one of many striking and beautiful works in this medium—shards of what appear to be CD-Rs secured to wire mesh frames with hot glue—from Chicago artist Sean E. Avery. [via adafruit]

Continue Reading
Rotary Tumbler From Printer Parts

Rotary Tumbler From Printer Parts

Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool, this homemade jewelry tumbler from user Copper Pete, who built a custom plywood case and packed it with repurposed parts from a dead printer to create what appears to be a pretty nice little machine. I think the drum, itself, is a purpose-made component.

Continue Reading
Test Tube Chandelier

Test Tube Chandelier

Named in honor of Madame Curie (whose full name was Maria Sklodowska-Curie), the Maria S.C. chandelier from Polish designer Pani Jurek allows for all kinds of interesting end-user customization options. And it’s hard to imagine an easier remake. [via CRAFT]

Continue Reading
Speedy PVC Sculptures

Speedy PVC Sculptures

Just two of several very clever works from Korean Kang Duck-Bong that use lengths of PVC pipe cut, bundled, and painted to suggest fast-moving objects blurred by speed. [via Boing Boing]

Continue Reading
Jerrycan Speakers

Jerrycan Speakers

I seem to recall that speaker enclosures should be rigid and massive, generally speaking, but there’s no denying the cool factor in this build-it-yourself project from Quebecois industrial designer Samuel Bernier. [via nerdstink]

Continue Reading
Solar Heater From Can Lids and Woven Plants

Solar Heater From Can Lids and Woven Plants

An interesting experiment from students in a course at Humboldt State University called Appropriate Technology Engineering 305. The parabolic form is essentially a large, shallow basket woven with fibers of locally-gathered Himalaya blackberry, which the students identify as an invasive species. In good weather, their dish could boil a jar of water in about two hours. I always like to see the clever thinking that can result from radical design constraints. [via No Tech Magazine]

Continue Reading