Bottle Cap Mosaic Mural Prototype - Euhri Jones Lets it Roll!

Last week we prototyped bottle cap mosaic technique. Eurhi Jones, an accomplished muralist and eco-artist laid out a basic design.  Then we slathered a particle board with premixed thinset and Eurhi traced the lines for our design which will likely be defined by white lines.
Solid white bottle caps are plentiful, and it gives structure to the concept.
Then we proceeded to lay in the cap "tiles". The first challenge is that bottle caps have depth, while ceramic tiles are flat, giving tiles more surface area for adhering.
Two heads are always better than one, so we came up with a fix: inserting a smaller bottle cap inside to fill up space and give more surface area. The red lower left corner was done that way so we'll see if we have better grip.
We were less particular about avoiding printing and embossing for our prototype, but you get the idea. Different sizes and levels add visual interest and texture. The blue "frame" tiles are Ensure Nutritional Supplement tops - they have a metallic inset which reflects light. Love them!
The board is 30 inches; the FoodMoxie Keyhole Garden will be 36" high. It will be a six foot circle, so only part of the design will be visible from any vantage point.
The design elements can be more refined if we have good color and size distribution, so if you're local, keep saving solid color caps! We need a minimum of 5,000.

Collecting: 5000 Solid Color Bottle Caps!!

We are collecting solid color threaded bottle caps for a mosaic mural on the exterior of
FoodMoxie's Keyhole Garden built of BottleBricks

Mosaic of Bottle Caps!

Artists Eurhi Jones and Betsy Teutsch play with mosaic tiles,
formerly known as threaded bottle caps. Photo: George M. Stern

Where do ideas come from? It is often hard to pinpoint the moment where an innovation comes from, but of course it requires experience and information.

To my knowledge, no one has done a mosaic mural using inset bottle caps like tiles/pavers. I have seen many bottle cap designs on Pinterest, some enormous, others small. 

In 2013, I participated in a week's long mosaic mural trip to Costa Rica with master mosaicist Laurel True. Using tile, mosaicists cut the ceramic tile with nippers, very hard on the hands. The effect is very visually attractive, though.

Since our FoodMoxie keyhole garden project will be constructed out of bottle bricks, suddenly I just started seeing bottle caps as mosaic pieces. When? I don't remember, the image was just there, fully formed of earlier exposures to mosaics, bottles, and keyhole gardens.

Why not create a colorful plastic bottle mosaic on the exterior of the retaining walls? I knew about keyhole gardens, featured first on my blog and then in my book, back when I went to Costa Rica. I suggested to the participants it would be a wonderful art commission, building one for a family garden and then designing a mosaic exterior--obviously the patron would need serious money for such a creation.

A square foot of solid bottle caps,
approximately 70.

Our approach will be collecting threaded plastic bottle caps with no logos, writing, or embossing, and creating a lively colorful design, engaging the community. If the result is beautiful, as we suspect it will be, we will have created an affordable way for low resource communities to create vibrant community art, upcycling waste materials. Such areas almost never have good waste management in place, but they have heaps of plastic everywhere.

A quick calculation means that in addition to the 1000 bottle bricks, we'll need about 5000 solid bottle caps. These are the ones found on jugs of milk, ice tea, juice, etc. Smaller caps from seltzer will be great for creating defining lines.

My favorites? Ensure nutritional supplement tops, which have a reflective cap inset, adding reflective light to our future design.

Start saving caps! We will be setting up a collection system soon.

Getting Creative with Bottle Brick Fill Shredding

The variety of stuff to compact in bottle bricks is endless -- dead ballpoint pens, foam liners, plastic odds and ends, mesh bags.
It does seem to me that for flat plastic waste it would be much quicker to shred than cut. The folks at PreciousPlastic agree and have posted open source plans for building a shredder. The shredded plastic could be used for filling bottle bricks. I ruined my paper shredder by putting in lightweight plastic, which clogged the blades, just in case that brilliant idea also occurred to you!

The World's First Bottle Brick Keyhole Garden: Here in Philly at MLK High!

Hope Garden students at Martin Luther King high fabricating 

bottle bricks - photo: Tara Campbell

A keyhole garden — a circular raised bed with a central composting column approached through a cutout indentation in the circle — integrates permaculture techniques into a beautiful freestanding structure. 

Originally designed by aid workers in Lesotho to assist grandmothers in feeding their families as the country navigated an HIV/AIDs epidemic, keyhole gardens have caught on around the world, in part because of their ability to retain water, which makes them drought-resistant. 

The scraps composting in the central column also absorb and filter gray water, another eco-friendly virtue.

In Lesotho, retaining walls are made from readily available stone, but they can be constructed with any weight-bearing material. When I first learned about bottle bricks, made by stuffing inorganic, unrecyclable trash into plastic bottles, I thought combining these two frugal techniques would be awesome — upcycling waste and marrying it to gardening.

Jackie Schrauger, Program Director at Weavers Way CommunityPrograms, and Tara Campbell, WWCP Youth Education Coordinator, listened attentively when I pitched this crazy idea. They immediately envisioned a bottle-brick keyhole garden at Hope Farm, nestled at Martin Luther King High School, where WWCP sponsors a program for students with autism and intellectual disabilities. Jackie and Tara loved that a keyhole garden’s height increases accessibility for gardeners with mobility issues. Plus, as at most high schools, there’s an ample plastic-waste stream at MLK!

Thrilled as I was with their enthusiasm, I felt honor-bound to point out how ambitious this construction project would be. I loved their response: “We like challenges!” Within a few days, they had laid the groundwork and secured an enthusiastic green light from MLK’s new principal, Keisha Wilkins. Tara’s plan is for the keyhole to be 6.5 feet across and 3 feet high, requiring about 1,000 bricks, possibly more. It’s an ambitious goal! WWCP will be using 20-ounce plastic bottles, such as Gatorade and Snapple, which are heavy plastic and have wide mouths that make filling them easier. The students are already at work. And you can help, too.

Anyone who would like to donate completed bricks, empty 20-ounce bottles or clean, dry materials should contact Jackie at jschrauger@weaversway.coop. Directions and a list of suitable fillings for bottle bricks are posted here.

As the project progresses, WWCP would love input and help from local permaculturists, architects, designers and/or construction mavens to help refine the technique. General volunteers are welcome as well. Contact Jackie to get involved.

I will be documenting this historic project. Watch for updates and help spread the word about the world’s very first bottle brick keyhole garden, right here in Northwest Philadelphia.

Betsy Teutsch’s recent book, “100 Under $100: Tools forEmpowering Global Women,” features
Keyhole Gardens (Tool #65) and Bottle Bricks (Tool # 74).

Contact her at Betsy@BetsyTeutsch.com.

Plastic is So So So So Dangerous, Polluting, and Wasteful

95% of plastic is used once and discarded. It consumes fossil fuel, accumulates and pollutes oceans and open spaces, and is a drain on the economy. We need to find better ways of managing the wonderful material.

Here is a report on the subject, with recommendations.

Bottle Brick Building Project at Plymouth Meeting Friends

Ecoladrillos, bottle bricks, are a Global South invention that solves numerous problems: a lack of recycling and waste management and a dearth of affordable building materials. Tool 74 in the book, I decided this would be a great way to bring this great idea from lower resource countries to my local community.

Bottle bricks dubbed “portable landfills”, and indeed they create a way to collect and upcycle all kinds of inorganic waste. While we do have recycling around here, there are dozens and dozens of items that cannot be recycled and wind up in the trash, and then in landfills.

Plymouth Meeting Friends School’s 5th grade teacher, Leann Stover Nyce, is heading up a project with her students with Amanda Davis. Their students are fabricating bottle bricks, in class, and also acceptingdonations. They will be building a gaga court and perhaps a raised bed with a bench this spring. Reports Stover Nyce:

“They are having a blast.  Really and truly.  Amanda is also the Lower School science teacher so she brought in her scale and they love weighing each brick.  One student brought in batteries to try to make them heavier.  It also acts as a ‘fidget.’  They can work on it while doing other things.  It is so fun.”