Monday, April 22, 2013

LIGHTED RE-CYCLYED BOTTLE MOBILE SUN-CATCHER

Hi everyone, as you can tell, I am still making flowers out of plastic bottles and am always looking for ways to present them.  I was browsing across the street at Bed Bath when I saw this simple table place mat.  Immediately, I imagined my plastic flowers around them with lights.  Say no more, that's exactly what I did.

This placemat was sturdy enough to stand on it own.  I mean it's pretty stiff.  I picked the flowers I  wanted for the outer edge.  I had previously cut, molded, and painted the flowers out of small plastic water bottles. Again, I used my favorite Adirondack Alcohol Inks.  Just love the way it stains these flowers.  You can find a link below if you have a problem looking for alcohol inks.



Look at the fantastic colors these Adirondack Alcohol Inks give to the simplest flower.  It looks like stained glass.  It is
permanently stained, just on plastic.  I cut strips of a green bottle and weaved it around the place mat.  Before I weaved it in I heated it so it would twist into a spiral and tried to make the ends look like leaves.
There is a mini light bulb in the middle of each small flower.
 I drilled holes in the middle of the flowers making sure the holes were large enough to fit a small mini string light bulb.  I weaved the lights in place and attached a flower to each bulb using a glue gun.  Careful not to glue the bulb.  I glue the flower to the mat.  That alone does the trick.
Small water bottle flower with a mini tree light
This plastic flower looks like glass.


The flower below I used for the middle is a three layer flower.  It consists of two, two liter soda bottles, and one small water bottle.  The bottom layer represents the bottom leaves.  It is a green bottle, and a small water bottle for the center.  I finished it with a glittered bottle top I made earlier.  I didn't try to capture the glitter look in this shot.  Sorry, but I wanted to show the way the alcohol works here.  Nice, right?

This is the three layered flower as described above.


I have very large panoramic window.  I hung it up with a strong but light hemp cord.

Lights on at dusk!

A bigger view with the lights on.  I could hardly wait till dusk to turn on my lights.
Well, I am a really happy camper with the way my up-cycled bottle mobile sun catcher with lights.  I just had to share.  See, I can work with Essential Tremors (ET).  Well, Lol, I can now since my brain surgery. I hope you like how I recycle and up-cycle bottles in the area.  See, if I alone can be creative so can you.  Really with these inks, they make my flowers look beautiful and I am no artist. Thanks for dropping by and allowing me to be of service.   I am happy to answer any question, and would love to hear from you.  Feel free to share by clicking on one of the links below.  Till the next idea.  Stay safe, and many blessings.

Sincerely,

Mary Helen



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