a sea frame

Repurposing what you already have is always the best way to take care of the planet. For this project, I created a little mosaic frame with plastic bottle caps found during beach clean-ups to hold a collage I created.

Supplies needed:

• found or thrifted frame
• plastic bottle caps
• tin snips
• sandpaper (optional – I used fine grit)
• paint (optional)
• glue

You can work on the frame as is, or you can choose to modify it. If the frame is already showing signs of distress, you can distress it further using sandpaper, and even whack at it with a hammer if you want. It turns out that the best way to distress a frame is to find one that’s been kicking around a photography studio for a while, they come pre-distressed it turns out!! I did use some sandpaper on mine to distress it a tiny bit more evenly, and also to dull the brightness of the silver a little. You could also paint the frame in a bright and bold colour, a nautical theme, or add and scratch off layers in different colours to make it even more distressed. I kind of liked mine the way I found it. Make sure the frame is clean of any dust and dry, after sanding or painting it.

I snipped little pieces from the edges of some bottle caps. I chose all blue caps for this project. It was easiest if I snipped the two sides of my mosaic piece and then bent the plastic before I snipped the third side, as shown in the photo. I did snip a few pieces from the flat top piece of one of the larger caps, for a titch of variety in texture. A little note here, bottle caps that are found at the beach can be super brittle, if they’ve been floating about the ocean for a while, or sitting in a hidden spot on the beach exposed to the elements, the plastic will literally disintegrate as you touch it, those are not good for anything. Throw them away as soon as you’ve collected them from the beach, with a thank you from Mother Earth for picking them up and not letting them disintegrate right back into the ocean.

I wasn’t particular that the pieces had to be the exact same shape or size, in fact, I watched a Bruins play-off game while I was cutting them, so my attention was definitely a bit elsewhere!

I used Aleene’s tacky glue to attach the pieces to the frame, mine is old and thick and especially gummy, I’ve had it for donkey’s years, so I used an old brush to put it on with and left it to dry.

The collage is created with some bits of an old map I found during a beach clean-up that I hadn’t found a purpose for (read: I was being too possessive of it and saving it for some great purpose, turns out this was it, great or not), along with some paper and material I’d rust and tea dyed, a bit of a letter from my mum, a little love poem I wrote to the sea and typed out on to an old book page using an ancient typewriter I have, and a photo I took of the sea. It could be true that I created the collage to go in the frame, lol.

Let me know if you make a little mosaic frame from bottle caps or something else you find lying about. And if you find a bit of map washed up at the shore that you don’t want, I’m pretty sure I can find something to do with it.