Record bowls, easiest gift ever!

[freeflyingstar]

  Does anyone know if there are fumes that may kill my cockatiels when heating the vinyl? I'm so eager to try this and am nervous about the possibility .

[ctm]

i hear you shoudln't even spray things like febreeze around birds, so just to be safe, i'd move em to another room far far away for the day or use a friend's oven

[starstruq]

I see an opportunity in this!!! Get daddy to take junior somewhere and while the two of them bond you can bake (records that is).  And if your lucky you might get to take a nice long no interuptions bath...bet you haven't had one of those since good ole junior was born!!  

Enjoy your craft...and take my advice about the bath...mommies should be pampered sometimes too!!

[snoopendous]

I just made bracelets and worked with cooked records for about an hour. I BARELY noticed a smell. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I agree -- when I made the record bowls, I did not really notice a smell, either.  I guess if you are worried, you could either do it after the baby has gone to bed and then open a window, or as was just suggested, just do it when the child is out with another person, and I'm sure by the time the baby returns, everything will be fine.  By the way, it's great that you are concerned about this.  I remember back in the early 1970s when I was a baby, people (like my dad) would regularly smoke in the house/car with their kids (like me!) and nobody ever thought about second hand smoke.  So I see this as progress.  Hope you have fun with your records!

[redhotsnapper]

i just have to say thank you! this is the best idea ever and fast! i just had a hannahkwanzmasohrha ma party the other night, and some peeps that i didn't know were coming came. i wanted everyone to have something to open, so i threw a bunch of records in the oven, made the bowls, filled them with christmas candy and stuff, wrapped them in cellophane and voila! instant gift and everyone loved them.  

[thereminofdoom]

i did this a very similar way --
instead of putting the record in the oven, i
held the record by the edges and held it about 1' above a
gas-stove burner. when the record started to sag in the middle
i put it into a bowl. to shape it.
the vinyl cools very quickly so you have to work fast, but if
you wanted to add a decorative edge to the lip, you just have to
hold it back over the burner and crimp/trim it, or what have you.

i've also heard of people that will melt the side, slightly, and embed an image.

i'm weary of putting the record in the oven because they've
discovered some toxic elements in record manufacturing.

you really only need a light heat to melt/manipulate a record.

[CircusManager220]

I just made one a few minutes ago. For some reason I am a bit woozy but maybe it is just the North Carolina air. Well anyways I used an old Rolling Stones record to give to my sister. Her boyfriend is a big Rolling Stones fan. Instead of putting the record on top of the bowl I put it inside.

It freaked me out at first because I open the oven and it is sagging all over the place but I took it out and push the middle inside the bowl and voila! A bowl. Though it is hard to alter the shape afterwards it turned out quite well.

I would take a picture but with my camera it would look red with black stuff around it.

[EastCoast]

I found out how to make these bowls from ReadyMade Magazine. For those of you who have never heard of this magazine-- run out and get it!!

Here is a link to the article: http://www.readymademag.com/feature_1_newspin.php

Here is one of the bowls that I made:

(The white line through the picture just means that I sold that particular bowl.)

And yes I am selling these bowls on my site. Even though you can pick them up at thrift stores for minimal bucks (or even change)-- you should factor in a couple of things:

1) You are spending your time making them. Time=money

2) Not just everyone is daring enough to try melting vinyl in their ovens....nor wants too. Sometimes people pay you for something because they cannot be bothered to do it themselves.

3) If you are using vintage records-- these are ONE of a KIND.

Add it all up.......

I have seen them as much as $32 and as little as $5.

-Melissa

[sophia]

I made some of these a few years ago but instead of melting the vinyl in the oven or above a stove, a kettle of boiling water was poured over the edges of the record (which was balanced on a bowl in a sink), then bent it into shape and left to cool, it seemed to work pretty well.

[dancecraze]

It might be neat to take a small record and turn it into a bowl for dip

When I was researching to make my record bowl (Supertramp record, which I kind of regret now), I read a couple of things that cautioned against using them for non-wrapped food. I would imagine a record can't be too sanitary. Or maybe that's just me; I'm paranoid about such things, heh.