The IMac floor lamp...

Almost  a year ago, I found an Imac G4 that somebody was trashing.

I was tempted by making a desk lamp, but since somebody already made it, it took the challenge away. Few days ago I decided to think again on how to use this piece of art, and this is it. The arc lamp revisited as a Marc Lamp :-) this mix between the Mac and the Arc lamp was fairly simple because I already have the base of the lamp at home. It comes from target Home collection.
The shade fits perfectly, the opening needs to be around 1.5 inch and it's exactly what apple did, how convenient !!!
It's a fairly easy upcycling and a cool looking floor lamp. The only tricky part is to find the right tools to unscrew all the unconventional screws used by Apple.

The light diffuse perfectly through the white plastic

Apple famous icons

The lamp is perfect for reading and it also diffuses the light really well to brighten our room

An easy upcycling with a result I really like!

Upcycling wood fence into planters

In my previous post you probably saw that seeds start growing, so to be consistent with my ideas I am now making a planter to transplant everything on my deck once my herbs are ready. I was running out of shipping pallet but found this pine wood that is designed to be a fence. For around $1 each piece, this planter will cost me no more that $4 and will be free if you have a shipping pallet!

I decided that my planter would have a tiny angle on each side (12 degres) but you don't have to if you want to keep everything really simple (1)

To create the angle I used a table saw and set up the angle.

(2) After cutting the three pieces of wood at the same length (5 feet) I was already at the assembling stage. I attached the side panels using a pre drill hole and then used deck screws (1 1/4 long). I did only one hole in the side panel and made sure the first screw was properly done, then the rest of the holes are really easy.

(3) Once the sides are installed you just have to make the ends of the planter. You'll use the extra pieces of wood you have left and draw directly on the wood the shape needed to close the planter on each end. I added an extra piece in the middle of the planter but this is not necessary. I used my jigsaw to cut the little pieces but the table saw could have done it too.

(4) This is the side view of the planter and where the screws should be.

The last step is to stain your planter, in my case I used the deck stain I had left, but if the planter turn bad after the summer, it will be easy and cheap to replace it!

I'm also planning on using plastic liner inside but I'm still not sure about the advantage of it, just let me know if you have an advice.

Upcycling egg crate

Probably not the most sophisticated upcycling I have done so far but it's really useful to start growing Basil, Mint, Rosemary and thyme and now is still a good time to start growing from seeds.

When the packaging is ready to be upcycled

Most of the time, when I do not post some of my upcycling projects, I try to features some upcycling that could be done at home. This packaging comes ready to be upcycled with all the instructions. This idea comes from british designer Steve Haslip who won a D&AD student award in 2007. The story does not tell you what to do if you buy 4 T-shirts :-) This is a clever idea anyway, well done!

Upcycling Nespresso capsules

These little coffee capsules have a much nicer design than the Keurig cups, but most of them end up in the recycling bin anyway.
I realized that a lot of creative mind a trying to reuse these capsules.

Necklace from Etsy

And lots of different colors:

From MiaNori on Etsy

Earrings with Swaorvski on Etsy

Keychains still from Etsy

I also found a blog in Catalan: Julia's workshop  with a curtain created with the same capsules!

These capsules have a real potential for creativity!

Alex Aebi who's an entomologist and also an artist, designs insects from the same Nespresso capsules:

Pictures by Guillaume Perret

Pictures by Guillaume Perret

I'm sure there's more to do with this capsules but the best would be to stop using them...

When Target uses recycling for their ads.

To celebrate The Avengers coming in theatres, Wieden + Kennedy's ad campaign for Target is featuring Avengers symbols made from items you can buy at Target. Captain America's shield is made with shoes, plastic spoons, balls and dr pepper cans!

Iron Man made with pencils, headlight, trucks, cans and legos

The Incredible Hulk's hands

Hand's details

Thor's hammer

Which one do you like?

Eco-friendly curtains and lamp.

This eco-friendly curtains is made with the bottom of plastic bottles, the resulting pattern is great. This is the work of UK designer Michele Brand.

When you look closely at the pattern, you see that she uses clothing tag attachers to link the flower pattern together, this way she gets a reliable distance between each flower.

Based on the same principle, Michele brand designs pendant light too:

I realized that it's possible to get an attachment tagging gun for around $20 from Amazon, It makes such project doable now! This is how it looks. 

Upcycling zippers

If you used Google today in the US, you might have realized that Google is celebrating Gideon Sundback: the "father of the zipper". It might be crazy but some people recycle old zippers.
Have a look at what I found on Etsy, flowers !

Bracelet:

If you want to buy, click here

And Necklace:

Necklace

Earth day 2012

From Womansday.com

Today is earth day.... so let's recycle... and upcycle.

The clock mechanism can be bought from http://www.clockparts.com/ around 15$ including everything.

An other furniture upcycled into kids kitchen

Featured on the amazing before-after blog.

You probably remember a previous post featuring some night stands and TV furnitures. This is an other amazing transformation for an entertainment center into kids kitchen. The picture are not great but it gives you a pretty good idea of the great upcycling that has been done!

When Bike chains turn into sculpture

This is the "once in a while" post that shows that upcycling or recycling is compatible with art.

Seo Young Deok is a sculptor who's inspired by the shapes of human body. By choosing to work with bike chains the Korean artist, who graduated from Environmental Sculpture at the University of Seoul, is sending a very clear message about industrialisation and the human condition. He spent one whole year moulding a mile of bike chains, worth over $40 000, into a sculpture of a giant head over 7.5 meters tall.

Happy easter: eggs and egg crates upcycling

The egg lamp made by nosigner.com

Eggs diffuse the light very efficiently, but this lamp won't forgive any mishandling!

Egg crates are not only good to soundproof a room but can also be great to diffuse light. I probably would use a "cold" light to avoid any fire hazard. They look great.

Egg crates lamp from designer  Federico Otero

from dollarstorecratfs.com

When Anthropologie repurposes Ziplock bags.

From Wukong on Flickr

This is what Anthropologie did with Ziploc on some of their windows. These suspended plants look great, I might try this in my backyard.