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Escama -- purses of crocheted pulltabs, made in Brazil

pragmatica

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pragmatica Collaborator

pragmatica

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Sorry if there's already been a thread on this topic, but I was looking through "Craft" at Barnes and Noble (neither FC Easy Crochet nor Interweave Crochet in stock) and one of the projects was flowers made from crocheting pulltabs together, which led me to the article at Craft's site which has awesome pictures but not the instruction set, which led me to check out the products of Escama, the originator of the article, which is a cooperative based in San Francisco and Brazil that makes handbags and other creations using recycled materials, with a lot of bags that are made of pulltabs crocheted together. The bags look industrial and totally cool -- less granny-square-looking than the pix at Craft. (Nothing against granny squares. They're just not industrial-looking.)

 

I'm absolutely going to make the pulltab flowers. I don't know what I'll do with them, though.

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Elle Collaborator

Elle

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Sorry if there's already been a thread on this topic, but I was looking through "Craft" at Barnes and Noble (neither FC Easy Crochet nor Interweave Crochet in stock) and one of the projects was flowers made from crocheting pulltabs together, which led me to the article at Craft's site which has awesome pictures but not the instruction set, which led me to check out the products of Escama, the originator of the article, which is a cooperative based in San Francisco and Brazil that makes handbags and other creations using recycled materials, with a lot of bags that are made of pulltabs crocheted together. The bags look industrial and totally cool -- less granny-square-looking than the pix at Craft. (Nothing against granny squares. They're just not industrial-looking.)

 

I'm absolutely going to make the pulltab flowers. I don't know what I'll do with them, though.

 

Oh, how COOL!! I am SO gonna save me some pull tabs from now on! Thanks for posting the link!

 

Elle

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angieInCA Enthusiast

angieInCA

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On some craft show (now I can't remember which one :think ) They showed how to make belts and bracelets with the pull tabs. I don't remember it being crochet but more of a wrap and pull but I might be wrong.

 

Maybe I'll search some sites and see if I can find the episode I think it was on DIY network.

 

Yep I was right it was on DIY. This is the link to show how to make a pull tab and elastic bracelet. It is not crochet but i'm sure some ingenius person could figure it out.

 

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_jewelry/article/0,2025,DIY_13762_3972082,00.html

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pragmatica Collaborator

pragmatica

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Crochet_Gram:

 

The instructions are in the current issue of Craft, which I think is bimonthly or quarterly so it'll be around for a while. Amazon probably has it, and it's easier to find in Barnes & Noble or Borders than crochet magazines, at least down here. (It's published by O'Reilly, who also publishes "Make" and is a very big publisher.)

 

The directions were very general and had weird terminology -- they referred to "low stitches" for SC and "high stitches" for DC. I guess the point is that you could use triple-crochet or whatever for the "high" stitches but I don't know what would be a functioning low stitch except SC.

 

The general gist is like this. (Materials are six pull tabs, crochet thread and hook.)

 

* Do six or so SC inside the pull part of the first pull tab.

 

* Do six or so SC inside the pull part of the next tab, which attaches them.

 

* Continue until you've linked six pulltabs together.

 

* Slip-stitch the last pulltab to the first, which pulls them into a flowery shape.

 

* Do a series of spiraling SC across the tops of the stitches you just made, and keep decreasing the circle until it fills in. This is like the reverse of a circle. The instructions were really bad for this part -- they just said "Fill in using low stitches." I think they meant to go around in a decreasing spiral but they didn't talk about decreases. Another approach is to start with a new piece of yarn and a magic circle, and keep increasing your circle like for amigurumi until it's almost the same size as the interior, and then link it using SC to the tops of the stitches in the petals.

 

* Crochet pretty petals around the outside circular part of pull tab with "high" stitches" (DC or TC, I guess) and go from one tab to the other without finishing off.

 

Hope that helps!

 

--Elissa

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Misa Apprentice

Misa

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Okay, now I've seen everything. Those are actually very nifty projects. Heaven knows this house is full of pop tops with all the sodas that get consumed. Might just have to try this one. Thanks for sharing :manyheart

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Mom w/a Motif Experienced

Mom w/a Motif

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That is a cool purse!! One woman at work came in with a purse made out of newspaper. I asked her (with my mouth like this: :eek ) 'Did you make that?' She said no, she bought it in Mexico or Cozumel (I can't remember which, I thought it was Mexico). It was soooo cool. I like this one, too. I don't know if I'll ever be able to figure out how to crochet one, but... Thanks for sharing it with us!!

 

Tina

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pragmatica Collaborator

pragmatica

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Is this the article you are talking about?

 

Yep, that's it...clearly I didn't delve far enough into the site to see that the instructions were, in fact, online. See what I mean about the "high-style" and "low-style" stitch oddity? I mean, it makes sense, especially for an international audience that uses different terms (like British crochet) but "high style" and "low style" have a really specific cultural meaning outside of crochet so it kinda made me laugh. Like, use a fancy couture super-designed stitch for one part, and use an intentionally kitsch ironic for the others.

 

Then again, could just be me.

 

E.

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debora Rookie

debora

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this is great. I love to recycle. I just showed my niece how to make braclets and belts by weaving ribbon through and now she is making them for her whole school. Pretty cool!! I am going to make some flowers for the purse I am making her. She will love it.

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pragmatica Collaborator

pragmatica

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I was at Maker Faire a few weekends ago (kinda like the high school science fair meets the libertarian version of the county fair, lots of DIY electronic and arts projects a la Burning Man, plus half a convention center building dedicated to Craft magazine stuff, and more hands-on try-it-yourself art, craft, and electronic projects for kids and grownups than you could get to in a day, AND full-scale Robot Wars) and the Escama bags were being sold there.

 

They were absolutely gorgeous -- you couldn't tell that the metal was from soda ring pulls unless you knew -- and the thread that they used was really soft and silky, not regular cotton #10 thread. If I hadn't already blown my pocket cash, I would have gotten one.

 

--E.

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