Bottle tops

Does anyone else find it annoying how you can recycle bottles but not bottle tops? For some reason, like toilet rolls, we don't throw out our bottle tops in my student house. So this it what I've done with them:

I used them to frame miniature portraits in my latest art project.

(Yes Lizi, that's you..no, not the one with the beard...)

Amanda at Crafts by Amanda made them into cute little ladybirds

And I saw milk bottle top being used at the Recycled: Design for Life exhibition at the V&A. 14 year old Lucy, from Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton, used milk bottle tops and scraps of gingham fabric to create an outfit inspired by the skinhead subculture.

More from the V&A

Here's some more cool stuff I saw at the V&A

This Walkers Crisps handbag is by Anya Hindmarch, who designed the I'm not a plastic bag bag. It's a piece from her Sweeties collection where she used familiar grocery brand names in the place of designer labels.  

I think real crisp packets should have sequins on.

Continuing with the crisp theme I also saw this outfit in the Design for Life: Recycled exhibition.

14 year old Emily from Dorothy Stringer School constructed this garment when working with the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Influenced by the hippy subculture she took a second hand skirt and added flowers cut out of crisp packets.

For more information about the project go here.

Recycled at the V&A

Last week I went to the V&A museum in London and whilst I do appreciate all the ancient artwork, I was quite interested in the temporary Design for Life exhibition.

The project sees five regional museums and galleries working with young people to inspire them and give them new design skills. This years theme was recycling, something most of us here in the craft world are fans of, and here are my favourite pieces;

This recycled snail table light was made by 15 year old Annette from Parrs Wood High School and it uses a low energy bulb and recycled materials to create a child's nightlight. I love it.

I really love this 'Apple Mac' by Elsha, 13, from Blatchington Mill School. It's made completely from plastic apple bags from supermarkets machine sewed together. She says she was inspired by the hippy look at festivals and I could see this look being rocked at Glastonbury. Fo sho.