bottle cap basket with tutorial

[artNcraft]

I made this basket patterned after a basket my husband brought back from Africa.  The one he bought was made from metal coke caps.  We don't buy anything that has metal tops, only plastic so I wanted to see if I could make something similar with plastic caps... It actually worked!  Here is the first one I made


I have instructions if you would like to make this, I will post some pictures here but it requires a lot of pictures so you can DOWNLOAD a PDF from my blog here:
http://infusedgoods.blogspot.com/2009/04/bottle-cap-basket-instructions_08.html

Here are some more pictures and written instructions













for a basket the same size as the one in my original post you will need 63 caps
(5 caps by 3 caps and 3 caps tall)

these are the tools you need:
wire (I used steel 18 gage)
wire cutters
needle nose pliers
1/16" hole punch

cut the wire to these lengths:
3 pieces of wire 19" long
5 pieces of wire 16" long
4 pieces of wire 22" long

punch 4 holes in each cap (evenly spaced)

take one of the 19" wires and one 16" wire and string them through the holes on one cap

on the 19" wire place 4 more caps on it, then string the other 4 - 16" wires though those caps (as picture shows)

string on another row of caps then place a 19" wire through those caps

add the last row for the bottom section and string the last 19" wire through those

push the caps together and straighten them as best as you can then bend up the wires on each side

add one row of caps all the way around the basket, this will take 16 caps

then string one of the 22" wires through those caps, you may need to use the needle nose pliers to help guide the wire into the punched holes

the caps might slide up when you are putting the wire through (this is ok) you will be able to push them back down later

when the 2 ends of the 22" wire meet bend them in and then twist them around each other on the inside of the basket

then clip the ends leaving enough to bend the point of the wire into the caps

once all the sides are done you will want to square out the basket, just mold it to look good and have straight walls

once you have your basket in a shape you are happy with you will need to place the last of the longest wire around the top of the basket, keep it in place by bending the wall wires over it

also where the ends of the wire meet twist them around each other and bend the ends up into the nearby caps

once you have bent down the wires trim them leaving just enough to bend them up into the caps

[Melvinator]

How cool! I bet it would be neat to turn the twist off caps of beer bottles or glass coke bottles around and use the neat resin filled ones with little hearts or pictures! Thanks for the tutorial

[HelloMel213]

Very cool idea!

[pinokeeo]

Great job.  I've seen these before, but could never figure out how to make one.  Thanks for the tute.

[ally-oops]

OOOoh such a great idea!! Awesome re-use!

[Cazness]

heeey! I was gonna do that! been saving up. hehe. sweet now I don't have to do as much trial and error! Thanks.

[BonEsInspired]

Hey that's really cool!
I have a TON of plastic bottle tops and now I just might have to try this out
Thanks for sharing!

[Hypothetical McGee]

Very cool!

Would you mind posting a pic of the metal one that inspired it? I have a zillion metal caps, and I'd love to try your tutorial to make a metal one.

[Coco18]

Good job. It looks easy but i think i would have a hard time with the wires..! I always throw the caps out coz they say you cna't recycle them but now i CAN!!!! Haha...

[artNcraft]

Thank you all for your comments.

Here is a picture of the coke cap basket from Africa. 



I think they 'punched' the holes in these caps with a hammer and nail (just my guess by looking at it)


Huggiepeelow, I like the idea of flipping the caps and filling them with resin

How cool! I bet it would be neat to turn the twist off caps of beer bottles or glass coke bottles around and use the neat resin filled ones with little hearts or pictures! Thanks for the tutorial