Make Plastic Fantastic – not tragic!

There has been a lot of interest lately in my previous posts on ‘Plarn’ and upcycling plastic bags which can be viewed here:The magic of plarn and Free upcycling patterns.

I have recently stumbled across these websites that you may also be interested in. These people are taking plastic recycling to a new level and making some really beautiful products through Plastic Fusion. 

The process called plastic fusion and it is relatively easy and is achieved by way of heating and fusing layers of plastic together (and sometimes trapping other material between the layers to create different textures). To do this you can use an iron (clothes iron, and there is a tutorial I’ve seen using a  hair straighter), you will need wax paper and a well ventilated area. The fumes are toxic and you need to take extra care not to inhale them. There is a DIY plastic fusion & mixed media tutorial on YouTube that is worth checking out.

Plastic fusion baby bibs for sale at 'The Bean' esty store - Click here

Other links worth looking at are:

1. Etsy Labs tutorial write-up
2. Instructables – Fusing plastic bags the ellipse way
3. The Ginger Penny Pincher Blog – she has found some cute plastic fusion items on the net recently.

Special Mention – Kulla Designs and their innovative use of Plastic Fusion

Kulla is an Industrial Design Studio, based in Israel. The studio was founded in 2007 by two young designers, Adi Shpigel and Keren Tomer.

These amazing ladies and their Studio focus mainly on material research, and the development of new design methods taking recycling to a new level and they do it so well!

Below are some examples of heat mould/press technique that is used by the amazing Kulla Design Studio. The following items are made from 50% plastic bag and 50% sawdust fusion.

I want a pair of their lampshades – they are very chic.

Click on the lamp image below to be taken to Kulla Designs site and see their design and manufacture process – truly inspirational.

Kulla Design Studio Lamp for sale on Inhabitat.com

 

Kulla Design – Sawdust and Plastic fused bar stool

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥  P