Sunday 26 February 2012

The Crafter’s Way–George Clooney Crafts

I’m sure George Clooney has inspired people to do all sorts of things but I may well be the first person he has inspired to create new craft ideas. Okay maybe it wasn’t Gorgeous George himself; it was more like that little coffee machine he promotes.
k-pods crafts
By now you are starting to think I’ve really lost it but have you seen the delicious colours the coffee pods come in? The colours alone are enough to inspire me to create something from them however after I read that they are not good for the environment I was on a mission. (Note: since I originally wrote this article I have leant that Nespresso is able to recycle the pods in 15 of their markets)

First job was to source a supply of the used coffee pods. My initial thought was doing some dumpster diving at George’s. The thought of explaining to a judge, “no really your honour it was only for my art”, brought me to an abrupt halt. As most crafters know when you need hard-to-find supplies you put out an all points bulletin to family and friends. Turns out my friends have been holding out on me, 3 of them have coffee machines that uses pods.

Used pods started arriving, the aroma of brewed, used coffee filled my studio and my creative juices started flowing. Where to start? Well, the first thing was to remove the let over coffee. This was much easier than expected. I peeled back the foil lid, tapped out the coffee dregs then gave a quick rinse. I air dried the pods in the sun. Result: aroma free, clean pods.

Now, I was no longer on a caffeine high. Clarity returned. Dumpster Diving at George Clooney’s? What was I thinking? What exactly could these little treasures reveal? Quite lot actually. I have discovered k-pods are versatile. 
You can:
Collapse
Embellish
Collage
Stitch
Burn
Engrave them,
and that is just for starters.
I have quite a few recycled & repurposed pod tutorials to share with you in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, a quickie inspired by George.
k-pods crafts 2
Lake Como Candles:
Step 1: prepare pods as described above.
Step 2: remove filter, this may take a little fiddling as it is adhered very firmly.
Step 3: Gently flatten bottom of pod.
Step 4: Light an inexpensive candle and carefully drip some melted wax into bottom. Place taper candle onto bottom. Hold until melted wax sets
Note: this works best with the half tapers, the full length candle are too top heavy.

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