We’ve had an email from long time contributor Bobbie:

I’d like to make a rain chain out of recycled material. Something beautiful but functional and long lasting – the Wikipedia article which has some beautiful examples.

I hadn’t heard of rain chains before but they seem like a fab idea: rather than hiding rain water in a boring tube, they make the drain/downspout into a feature – possibly not great for in constantly wet places like the UK but useful in dry climes and also as additional downspouts where a normal plastic one would look horrible.

So then, Bobbie’s query: what recycled stuff can they be made from? My first thought when I saw the cup style ones on Wikipedia was bundt cake and other round/ring cake tins – I quite often see baking things like that at our local furniture-focused charity shop, and it would be perfect for someone who loved baking. Old paint cans, painted pretty colours, might work too.

I imagine steampunk fans could make very cool ones with random scrapped cogs and machine parts – and a little light rust would add to the look.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo from The Fun Times Guide)

We’ve had an email from Danielle – experiencing situation that will be oh-so-common at the moment:

My kids love playing with water bombs. There are gazillions of split water bombs all over my garden and garage roof and god know where else. I have also collected a tubful thinking I might do something with them. But what …? Obviously they are all split ones?

We’ve covered foil balloons on the site before but not the rubber type – so any ideas?

Like regular balloons, they’ve got an roll of rubber at the open end – snipped off, they make strong (but quite tight) rubber bands.

As for the larger, flat pieces – anyone know any good ways to fix them together to make a patchwork? While it’s not going to be elegant, it might make a fun splashproof surface for in a kids’ room or used to add grip when opening stubborn jars.

Any other suggestions?

A few weeks ago (I missed it somehow), Courtney posted on the Suggestions page:

I have been given a shed full of random stuff to make crafts out of. Most of it I’ve managed to use but I can’t find any use for these skateboard wheels. What can I make with skateboard wheels?

If they’re still in pretty clean (whether bashed up or not), I imagine they could be made into a very cool coat rack – or even doorknobs – ideal for a skater’s bedroom. (They might need to be glued into position if the spinning around causing slippage problems.)

If they’re still on an axle and/or easily attachable to a board, they could be used to make a trolley for moving heavy plant pots around the garden.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve covered orange peel, banana skins and pineapple bits, what about melon rind?

During last week’s super-hot (for the UK) weather, John consumed a fair bit of watermelon – leaving slithers of rind behind after he’s eaten the flesh.

A quick Google reveals that after peeling off the green outside layer, the remaining rind can be candied or made into a spicy pickle. Chickens also like pecking at them (in the same way they do just about everything) and if nothing else, it can be composted.

But is there anything else? Can the rind – the tough outer layer – be dried and used like a leather?

We’ve had a message on the Suggestions page from Jing:

Help! I have a beanbag which has flattened over the years and so I want to know a) what recycled stuff to refill fill it with and b) what to do with the useless little squished styrofoam bits.

Craft suggestions, if there are any, might be helpful for other people but please can I have suggestions that don’t mean I have to handle the styrofoam; I have a deep and ridiculous fear of the stuff and can’t bear touching it, looking at it, or the squeaky noise it makes when handled. Odd, I know, but as fears go it’s pretty harmless.

Yes, the feel and sound of the styrofoam balls is pretty ick-worthy – but those little foam things are surely useful for something…

In the (admittedly not many) flattened beanbags I’ve seen, the flattening tends to be one of two problems: either the bag has lost some filler or, particularly in the case of more structured footstool-esque beanbags, the fabric has lost its tautness and gone floppy. It doesn’t tend to be the filler that’s the problem – because the balls are so springy and tiny. Adding some more filler or reducing the size of the beanbag would solve the first problem, but the latter would need a new cover – essentially making a new beanbag for the old filler.

As for other uses, I’ve used beanbag filler for juggling balls but the styrofoam stuff doesn’t really have the right weight to it to be used on its own in there. It would be ok in (well sealed) soft toys though.

Some people use it in potting soil to aerate it – instead of perlite – but there are pollution/chemical leakage issues with that so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Any other suggestions? Any suggestions on recycled things that could be used in the place of more shop-bought filler?