W150: Waste Waste Basket

I’m not stuttering, that isn’t a typo – it just cracks me up to think of using waste to hold waste. I wrote last month about trash dummy. Well this waste basket is a project for later, but damn it, I want to blog about it now because I had a long encouraging chat with a neighbor last evening about waste. (More on that later).

Now I am in the middle of my challenge to begin my dawn and sunset routines, to get me out of procrastination. I am in my baby steps with this re-animation katecontinued make-a-(green)plan life challenge. There’s nothing new here folks. This is what we all do when we get off on side tangents, back roads, entropy or simply a seasonal fugue.

Well, I made a project planning outline for myself last month wherein I will do spring cleaning and complete current projects by the 4th of July. Following that phase that I think of as clearing the decks I have the last half of this year to completely purge. Along with that process I have a few new project ideas about making use of things I own.

I have lost the spot where I first viewed this last spring, but it led to the original craft site with crafter’s own how-to information via the frequently asked questions.

Thanks everyone! Glad you all like it. Now for a little FAQ...
How long did it take you?
A freakin' long time. I started it on Monday and worked on it for a couple of hours a day until last night. I'd say it took at least six to eight hours, probably more than that. I set up a little work space in the living room so I could watch crappy reality TV while I worked on it. I think that kept me from going insane.

Did you seal/protect it with anything?
I sealed the whole thing with Mod Podge. I still might give it a coat of polyurethane.

HOW DID YOU DO IT?! I LOOOVE IT!
It's easier than it looks! The base uses the same technique one would use to make a magazine bowl, only instead of shaping it into a bowl you leave it flat and coat the whole thing with Mod Podge. For the rings you cut magazine pages into thirds and, starting at one corner, roll the pieces around a bamboo skewer (or a pencil or other similar object). Brush a little dab of glue on the opposite corner and seal it up to make a thin paper straw. Then flatten out the straw and coil it around your finger to make a ring, gluing down the tail. Repeat about 399 times and hot glue them on top of each other in a shape you like, and seal with Mod Podge. Hope that makes sense.

How strong/durable is it?
It's sturdy enough to function as a trash can. It wouldn't take much to destroy it if you tried, but I wouldn't try if I were you, at least not in my house.
Have you tried doing it with just a few colors like a pattern or something?
I haven't but that might be cool, maybe with some patterned paper. I like the random, colorful look of the magazines though.

Well, I have stacks and stacks of design magazines to purge. I have scheduled purging all my books and magazine the last week of September. By then I hope I have become completely at ease with not being in front of a screen for hours and hours at a time. I also suspect I could sell these or give them as gifts if were able to produce more than one.

Now I will put it aside for a season and turn to the tasks at hand. The neighbor who came to my door last night needed me to throw her rotten vegetables from a half dozen plastic bags into the composter. She had ventured out of her little lavender home to the compost bin by the garden, but just couldn’t abide the idea of lifting the lid and having fruit flies around her face. *sigh*

I was happy to dump the slimy vegetables for her and commiserated about the guilt of letting food go off. When we talked of waste I shared my stories of no plastic bags from the grocery store due to taking my homemade produce / bulk food bags and laundry basket. She was intrigued, but she was adamant she had to have plastic liners. I explained I put all wet waste into a glass (or metal or plastic) container with a lid until dumping in my wormery. My paper, metal or glass recycle stuff didn’t need a liner though I think papers in bottom catch in water droplets from washing out cans, bottles. And, I told her about my Trash Dummy for all of the plastic that I think I am keeping out of my house. *sigh* I want to see how much it expands trash dummy rather than simply weighing or recording it.

We ended our conversation with my telling her to just observe herself and play around with ideas, confessing it took a year for me to figure out some of my basic strategies that now seem so simple. I reminded her that we have been habituated by advertisements to think we must have countless products that are just not necessary; e.g., paper towels, plastic bags and shampoo. Well, the shampoo reaction will wait. The woman was so intrigued. She came by not long after with bags of fresh vegetable to share with me.

Maybe I could make her a waste waste basket this fall? Oh, and did I mention I am not very fond of crafts or cutesy stuff? For some reason this waste waste basket is appealing to me.