A new wave of art has begun to rise up from the waste everywhere. Elements that were the trash of yesterday are the supplies for today to create amazing art. What are we talking about? We are talking about lids of plastic bottles. An object so small that never the less, contributes to make huge art projects that beautify more than one city all over the world.
This art wave consists on using cork of bottle to create complex artistic work in the most various ways. The art made with the lids of plastic bottles can be from any artistic movement: they can be pictorial art, mosaic art, impressionist art, eclectic art, abstract art, cubist art… there can be innumerable kinds of pictures made with this very impressive technique.
But this method does not come handy just for art projects. In the do it yourself (DIY) community tons of ways to make the best of this before considered waste material have been found.
From house dinner wear to an entire sitting set for the living room, these days you can find almost anything done with this versatile material that is as cheap as difficult to find.
This rough material to create art with is very cheap to get. It is just as simple as getting the bottles’ cork and stock them somewhere until you have a good amount that allows you to do the craft you envisioned. But as we just said, is just as cheap as it is hard to get it, at least the way you want it or need it to make the work you picture in your head.
Lids made art
The most intricate designs with this material can take very long time to be putted together, since the gathering of the material can be a hard and difficult task. Just imagine, getting enough lids for the craft, but that is not the only thing, because when you think about the color scheme you want to use, then the time multiplies because you need to get particular colors.
That is why the people who make art or crafts with this recursive material should be considerate as true artists, because a lot of time and dedication is needed to perform the amazing creations we can see in this material.
Not so long ago, this kind of art was considered the work of misfits who had nothing good to do with their time and effort. No one knows when, but later than sooner people started to see the value and huge amount of effort that making this kind of creations need to come to life, and that it is more than picking up lids here and there and pasting them together.
So now you can see these works of art not only on bohemian houses, but also in big walls in the streets of smaller and bigger towns, in galleries, in outdoor exhibits, in pubs and night clubs and in many places we would have not thought before. The lids of plastic bottles’ art are taking the art scene worldwide.
In the artistic scene you can see the most ambitious projects with this material. Incredibly intricate works of art can be made using this material only. Sometimes is astonishing how accurate and detailed some designs can be, making obvious that there was a very well thought plan behind the overall design, and a very long, hard and exhausting work to take it into reality.
With the use of different sizes, colors and shapes of plastic bottles’ lids, a lot of patience and a plan, any famous work of art can be reproduced. Any scene from any story, even that one you created yourself, can be made. Anything your mind can come up with can be made with this amazing art technique.
Crafts for children
With lids or corks of plastic bottles you can do anything. Any kind of thing, for any possible use can be done with this material. These lids are a perfect material to create crafts at home with the little ones. Little stamps, chips for any board game, animal figures, fruit figures, bedroom decorations, and more, can be created for hours of fun with the kids whether is at home or school. These lids or corks are a very inexpensive and an unbelievable way to help kids boost up their creativity.
What a best way to create original and unique toys with the kids than to use this material? You will get hours of family fun, and if the robot you made together gets ruined you will not be depressed thinking about how much money you spent on it. You will just have to take back all the lids and re-build it. Another great lesson for kids: to create fun toys on their own, and one that can be destroyed and rebuilt? That must be a lot of fun!
Crafts for inside the house
For the house there are also lots of ways lids of plastic bottles can be used. For example, you can make dish or glass holders using this method. This is a great idea because the material and thickness of the corks allows them to be a perfect temperature insulator.
Cute fridge magnets, like birds or farm animals can be home made in minutes. There are lots of different crafts that can be made using almost uniquely this material. Fridge magnets come very handy to keep reminders around the house. With these magnets you will never have to worry about getting too many. And it is just a matter of taking the lid and pasting a small magnet in the rear of it. That is it, a simple, very useful magnet right away.
It is also good to help with renovations. You can get help from this material to make tweaks here and there that will help you give a new face to your home. For example, a cheap, creative, beautiful way to renew an old table can be creating a color design on the table’s board. It will be hard and long to get it done, but the satisfaction will be huge.
Or what about decorating your house with stunning beautiful colorful summer curtains? Perfect for a beach house or country decorations, this kind of design is definitively an ode to creativity. These curtains can also be a nice way to separate spaces in any house, or to give fake doors to kids.
Make an excellent an affordable design decision by creating lamps with this material. All you need to do is get the lids on the colors of your choice and rap the lamp with them.
You can use lids of plastic bottles in any space of your house. From flower vases to welcome mats, these lids can be used for anything you set your mind to.
Even a clock can be made with this technique. It is just a matter of getting your supplies, plastic bottle lids, a clock mechanism, glue and a big plate to arrange everything. Bet you did never think you could make a clock yourself!
Crafts for outside the house
For the outside of the house, lids of plastic bottles can also be very handy. Particularly to make garden decorations, lids of plastic bottles with all its different colors can imitate any possible form there is in nature, like a dragon fly, which is also very easy to create.
To make small flowers that camouflages with the environment, or to make huge flowers to welcome guests to your house, the lids of plastic bottles is a very used material for this kind of crafts that work so well with the general landscape of any yard.
For an artistic option to use on everyday bases, an outdoor set of chairs, and even a little table. A perfect way to rescue your old furniture from the trash can. These kinds of creations can be made with a color pattern or randomly, that will depend on the creator’s patience, time and creativity.
Other crafts done with plastic bottle corks
More complex creations can be made with plastic bottle lids like a massaging mat to cover any seat, and making it is just as easy as to get a pattern and then filling it with lids. Lids are attached one to the other by gluing or tying them. The color selection will depend on the crafter’s wish. You can decide to create a color design, or if you are in a hurry to use your seat cover, you can use any lids you have got in hand in a random selection and placing.
The lids of plastic bottles can be a perfect way to make posters and banners for ecologic manifestations. What a better way to say you are green than using recycled materials to create your signs?
With a bunch of these lids and basic drawing knowledge, anyone can design their own mural. It is just a matter of drawing the overall idea in the chosen wall, define colors and start pasting them into the wall. You can decide the design first and then get the materials according to what you want to create, or do the opposite and get the material first and then in site decide what creation you want to make with the available material. Both options will require creativity, talent and patience.
Conclusion
Lids of plastic bottles once were seen as only waste. Trash to be thrown at the bin. But now, with everybody wanting to do something, no matter how little to help save the earth, new artistic waves have born.
Veteran artists have dived into this new artistic movement to create the most astonishing work, while a new current of alternative artists start to emerge from places no one would have ever imagined. Because the great thing about this new wave of art is that it gives the chance to everybody to express their artist self-creating amazing works that can even be used on everyday bases, which is something that most art do not do.
Lots of color and happiness comes with the creation of these works of art. They give a splash of hope, good vibe and modernism to any place they are in. These crafts are for the young and for the elder too. It can be a way to educate kids, to release people from stress just by practicing this art, to keep elders wise and healthy by exercising their memory, creativity and even movements designing and developing works of art made with lids.
The crafts made with plastic bottle lids are definitively here to stay, they are a stand on how anybody can help to recycle and reuse materials to make brand new things from old used things. It is a way of art that has grown and amplified its spectrum, so now crafts are not done only with plastic bottle lids, but you can also use other reused or recycled materials like plastic or even glass bottles; CD’s and DVD’s; plastic boxes; plastic bags, and many, many other elements that once were only trash and now are art.
Maybe in a few years from now people will pay big amounts of money just to get one of these works of art that today are still considered rare and even funny. Today we see them as a colorful, fun art expression. Most people do not take it serious and just see this art expression as something that is more a hobby than a serious activity. But these examples of things made with these lids that we have seen here, prove that more people are taking this wave very seriously, and that they understand that crafting with plastic bottle corks is a true work of art. And people also understand that creating crafts with this material will make possible to do cute things at home in the most inexpensive and creative way. The lids of plastic bottles are definitively here to stay.