Make: plastic key rings from plastic fishing rope
Make a plastic key ring
Plastic was invented about one hundred years ago and almost every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists on our planet unless it’s been burned. So there is plenty of the stuff about. So much so that it is becoming a problem as it litters our lands and oceans. We regularly collect litter on beaches in an effort to help address the problem in our own little way, removing the risk of it returning to the sea or ocean and recycling it if we can. More recently, we’ve tried to find ways of using the plastic – upcycling it rather than putting it in a recycling bin.
Our project this week was to make something out of the abandoned plastic fishing rope that we had collected on the beach. We wanted to make key rings that would not only put the plastic rope that we had collected to good use but would be useful and raise awareness.
The key rings that we designed use nautical knots as an obvious link back to the sea. We found a really simple “How to Make DIY Nautical Knot Bracelets” on the internet and adapted them into keyrings instead. The results were impressive; the key rings not only looked great but there is real feel-good factor because we know that they are made using rubbish, abandoned in the sea.
If you fancy having a go at making your own Nautical Knot Key Ring, here are some instructions:
- Collect some abandoned plastic fishing rope from a beach and wash it.
- Go to the “How to Make DIY Nautical Knot Bracelets” website and follow step 2 which shows you how to create a nautical knot.
- Cut off any excess rope.
- Attach the ends of the ropes together to make loops, not forgetting to add your clasp and ring (these can be ordered quite easily off the internet). There are various ways that you could do this. The method suggested on the website is fiddly and quite difficult using plastic rope so a more durable method is to use a glue gun to stick the rope together or alternatively heat the rope up using a lighter or matches and as it begins to melt, stick the ends together.
- Cover the attached rope end with thread…et voila!
Don’t forget to tell everyone where the plastic rope was from and raise the awareness!
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