Vinyl Records Rethought

There's an awesome little non-profit near us called SCRAP which encourages creative reuse (maybe there's one near you). They take donation of paints, fabrics, transistor parts, whatever people donate that's usable that someone else might be able to use in a creative way (not your trash or recyclables, mind you). In one of the many piles of goodies were a bunch of vinyl records. I'm sure you've seen the creative ways folks are repurposing old vinyl in interesting ways - a quick search on Pinterest will tell you all you need to know.

Here's what I did and the instructions I followed:

First: preheat oven to about 225 degrees and ventilate your kitchen - open the windows, open the door, get the air moving.

Second: make your template for the shape you want to cut. I decided not to make a bowl or lampshade, but rather some butterflies I could stick on the wall. I used a paint pen to trace the template onto the records for cutting.

Third: put the vinyl on a cookie tray (preferably one you won't be using again for food) and put in the oven for about 5-8 minutes. Keep an eye on it - you'll want it malleable but not too soft.

Fourth: put on your oven mitt, or some leather gloves (unless you have asbestos hands), and with some sharp kitchen shears start cutting. You'll need to work quickly; depending on the weather outside (because you really ventilated well!) the temperature of the vinyl may cool off quickly.

Fifth: lather, rinse, repe  at. After you get as much cutting as you can before the vinyl hardens, put it back in the oven and soften it up. Wait about 5-8 minutes and go at it again.

Sixth: once the cutting is done, put the vinyl in the oven for one more round; once soft shape the vinyl in the way you want it - you'll find it gets pretty floppy but because it cools so quickly (good job on the ventilating!) you won't need to wait long for it to hold its shape.

Neato! What fun things do you have in mind for rethinking vinyl records?