Vinyl Record Bowls

Article reprinted with permission from ACP Media (Your Home & Garden)

A fun and easy project – use as a fruit bowl or a display piece

Materials: Vinyl records
Tools: Oven-proof bowl, oven gloves, oven tray

Time: 1 hour
Cost: $0
Difficulty: Easy

Like most people, I now prefer to listen to music on my MP3 player but still have a surplus of old vinyl records that I never listen to. I didn’t want to throw them out, so researched ways to recycle them and came across the idea of making them into bowls.

1. Heat oven to around 120 degrees Celsius.

2. Place an oven-proof bowl upside down on an oven tray and then place vinyl record on top (make sure it is centred).

3. Put in the oven for around five minutes.

4. The record will become soft and start to droop over the bowl in a wavy shape. Remove the oven tray and then (with oven gloves on) gently press the record down so it begins to take the form of the bowl. Work quickly as you only have around 30 seconds before the record will begin to harden.

5. If you make a mistake or do not like the shape your bowl has taken, put it back in the oven for another couple of minutes to soften and then reshape again.

Tips
Experiment with different shapes and sizes of oven proof dishes. To make a serving tray, place record on top of a shallow pie dish, or for a bowl with higher sides try pushing the record inside another bowl once it has come out of the oven.

Try making bowls out of different coloured records – I found lots of coloured and clear records in the 'Dance' section at my local second-hand record shop.

Because of their central hole, these bowls can also be used as plant pots.