Recycled Plastic Earrings

Αn idea to make earrings from recycled plastic bottle caps.

Αny plastic marked as HDPE 2, can be melted with relative safety and molded again in anything you want. In my project, I used bottle caps in shades of blue and white.

There are several ways you can bring plastic to a melting point, such as an oven or a toaster. but for me and for this project what worked best is a heat gun. I started to melt the lids and stir frequently to mix the colors to the point where you like the result.

I chose to cut it into a simple circle shape, you can experiment with the shape more than me of course. I used my CNC machine to do the cutting, but the plastic is so soft as a material that you can very easily cut it to the shape you want with a hand saw.

With an electric sander, I determined the final thickness of the earrings, then use different grit of sandpaper from the largest to the smallest for the final result.

Finally, with a little epoxy, I glue the posts for the earrings. In an almost simple way, you have these unique push-back earrings that remind me of the sea!