Upcycling anything to make portraits

This is exactly what Zac Freeman does, and he makes amazing portraits. In 1999, Zac started collecting junk, found objects and glued them to wooden substrate to create images of unknown people. His art work is made on large pieces (28" X 35" or 70cm X 90cm).


From the artist:
"I was interested in communicating through visual representation in apparent 2-dimensional space and through the actual objects used for the medium in 3-dimensional space. It is very important to me that I incorporate the actual objects into the art as opposed to a picture or rendition of it because it better expresses the intention of the artwork. I feel the junk is more powerful being present. It is an actual thing to be reckoned with that existed in this time and place and carries energy in and of itself."

 

The artist at work

Ping-pong balls upcycling...

Based on the same cocktail-umbrella technique, this is the ping-pong balls upcycling!
This one was designed originally by Jeff Schneider. A bit more than 400 balls were used on a 18 inches diameter ball.

This one is made by studio Kleefstra and uses a metal frame.

A table lamp from the same studio.

The cocktail umbrella lamps

You can buy this exotic lamp from this site here but you'll have to spend $85... If you enjoy craft, you better do it yourself!

You'll have to cut the stick of the umbrella and use a ball to arrange the umbrellas. you'll glue only the overlapping pieces together. When the glue is dry for the first three rows, remove the ball and finish the last row.

When the hemisphere is completely dry, add the cord. Ideally the cord should be just where there's an umbrella, so you remove the tip of the umbrella and cut the 10 little sticks to fit the hole.

If you want to make a full lantern, making it perfectly round might be more difficult.

So I recommend to do this Ikea hack, using the Ikea regolit shade, you just have to stick the umbrella and add a little bit of glue and that's it!

        

Upcycling bath tub into a chair

Bath tub are usually pretty comfy, so what about using them as a chair?
These designers from Reddish studios gave it a try, and it looks comfortable to me, with minor changes to the tub, just few cuts, they did a great job. They even kept the drain hole!
If you like it, you can look at other bath tub upcycled into sofa, I posted previously.

Upcycling a plastic bottle to seal a bag

I saw this upcycling, but I never tried it.
Last morning, I couldn't find any clip to seal my bag, that was the perfect excuse to try this!

No need to give a full tutorial on this one...

I also tried different ways of cutting the bottle, keeping the handle was also useful, but the most minimalist design worked best.

Upcycling a dresser into a Barbie Doll House

I found this great tutorial on just-in.com, if you want to make this, you'll get al the details, I'll have to make my own.... if I get a daughter.

A bowl made of buttons

I really like to make bowl with upcycled items like chopsticks, in this old post. 

Iñigo Cañedo who's designer in Mexico created this amazing Knoop Button Bowl. He used a hemispheric shape to arrange the button together. I suspect that he used epoxy glue to get the strongest bonding as possible. The buttons he chose have perfect translucent colors to create light projections. Wonderful job!

upcycling lego into key holder...

I wanted to make this upcycling for many days now, but couldn't find the time to do it. this week end I finally found the time... The idea was to use legos from my son, make a keychain and being able to hang it somewhere in order to stop losing my keys... I used transparent legos that I stuck on a switch plate.

How to make it

I used an old keychain to reuse the ring, a brick for the keychain and transparent bricks to stick to the switch plate.

Using a drill, I made two little holes in the blue brick allowing me to fit the keychain using pliers (that opened the attachment ring).

Using epoxy glue, it's easy to stick the brick to the switch plate. That's all you need to do! It takes 30 min to make. Now there's no way I'm gonna lose my keys.... I hope.

Stairs made from reclaimed wood

These stairs look gorgeous! They are made from a huge variety of wood, from antique hardwood floor to construction wood or even crates. It looks like  add-on boxes supporting itself as a constructed, empty beam.  It is made by a designing company from Germany.

before

After

Probably not the safest stairs you can built, specifically if you have kids, but I like the idea.

Upcycling....shuttlecock into a lamp!

 

A good looking pendant light made by designer Kiel Mead, you'll have to use a "cold" light to avoid any unwanted fire....

Brush Hooks

Created by artist Dominic Wilcox, it's a funny way to use paint brush.

Eco-art from Sarah Turner: The twitter ball

Once in a while, I like to show more artistic project, that are part of exhibitions. This project is an other one made by Sarah Turner, after the great lamps made from plastic bottles that you can see here. Sarah made an other kind of "lamp"s that look awesome. She used 562 plastic bottles and 100's LED light, the final result is fantastic!!

Upcycling table soccer parts

An other fun way of hanging clothes, specially if you are a soccer fan. You can buy this from Spain on rs-barcelona.com and choose the team you want, or individual players. But if you happen to have an old table soccer... you know what to do now!

Upcycling a ladder into a corner bookshelf

An old ladder can always be useful...

Upcycling soda can tabs into lamps.

I fell in love with this lamp made by Allison Patrick on Etsy, it took her 10 hours to make it and it's for sale for $295. If you want to make your own, get ready to collect 1500 tabs.

This one was seen on Inhabitat.com

Upcycling an old book..... to protect a notebook.

An other great use of an old book. The leather one are really made for such upcycling. You can buy it here or try to make it yourself. I will try as soon as I find the right book.
Previously I posted that books could also be used to make a cool-looking docking station, click here if you want to see the old post.

A chandelier made with ... paper clips

Amazing the shape you can give to the chandelier by just changing the number of paper clips on each row. Some are available on Etsy, but it so much fun to try to make one! You'll have to find metal rings with different diameter  and you'll be set to start!

This is the making process in 2 pictures:

If you feel like it's too complicated, this is an other kind of chandelier, much easier to make, also with paper clips:

You can watch the video if you want to try :

Upcycling an old Ikea gorm (shelf) into a shoe rack

Last week, my neighbor trashed an old broken shelf like the one here, it is a "gorm" shelf from Ikea. I could not resist, I had to take the good parts still in good shape to make this little rack I was thinking of...

This is what I could rescue :

It could have been a shoe rack right away, but I needed to give a slightly better look by giving a nice shape to the legs, so I made a quick template like this one :

And I cut using my favorite jigsaw :

Using a sander or just sand paper, it looks much better if the edges are smooth.
I also decided to stain the wood to match the bench color:

And I let it dry over night :

Now I can store more shoes under my bench!!! In style and for really cheap.

Optional step: After staining and drying, you can apply polyurethane to give your rack a shiny protected look of varnish.