Paper + Glue = A Brand New YOU!

For the past several years I've beenworking in the creative medium of sculpture utilizing reused materials, primarily paper "welded together" with ModPodge. This blog post is going to teach you how to make your very own Roller Derby hat out newspaper/phone book pages, cereal/pizza boxes and mod podge with absolutely no other material necessary (although you might want a pair of scissors and stapler to help you out) I estimate the total cost for this project will likely run you about $8 beyond the found materials.

First, a little bit about my derby story. Back in 2010 my wife and I were compelled to check out local women's roller derby here in Knoxville, TN after having seen the movie "Whip It" with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore. Like the testimony goes for many who see roller derby, we saw 1 Hard Knox Roller Girls game and we were hooked. From there I began creating an ever evolving series derby fan hats beginning with the very first attempt titled "Kill 'em Dead" which was essentially a text bubble attached to 3d glasses.

"Kill 'em Dead" later became a hat that resembled Mickey Mouse / A Black Bear and with that became the defining slogan of my derby persona. I would go on to create several more hats with different slogans such as "Outta 'Dis World Action" on a green alien hat and "Show 'Em Your Teeth" on a Lady Gaga inspired derby hat (which actually covered my entire upper torso and wasn't particularly conducive to actually watching derby.. but I digress.)

The process of making a derby hat (or a hat for any occasion really) out of paper, modpodge and some cardboard is really super easy.

First, you will want to cut up a number of cereal boxes into strips about half an inch in width and the length of the box. Using these strips you will construct a skeletal structure for your hat. The best place to start is likely looping a strip (or 2 if you have a big head like me) around your forehead and then stapling it into a circle.

The next thing you will do is run strips from one end of this loop to the other (over the top of your head) making sure that it allows for the depth of your head to comfortably fit. Essentially you are making a bowl. Again, staples are the quickest and easiest way to get through this process although you can use mod podge as well. Something to keep in mind while doing this is that once you add the paper skin, the bowl might fit a little tighter so it may be work making the structure a little loose at first.

Once you have your skeletal structure you can start to "skin" it. This simply involves applying mod podge to the bottom side of the paper and applying it over the skeletal structure. You will then apply mod podge on top of it so that it adheres to the structure. I use my fingers for this process. You will want to do a number of layers, particularly if you are using thin paper like newspaper or phone book paper, both of which I recommend.

Once you have a fully skinned bowl, you can use the same technique used to make the bowl to add features to it. In the case of my living dead unicorn hat, I made a horn which I attached, 2 ears and an X for the eye. The X was finished with black acrylic paint before I attached it as was the detailing in the ears. Otherwise, the entire finish for the living dead unicorn hat was done by selectively using fragments of paper of the same color. You can also use acrylic paint.

For a less tacky finish, what I will do is seal the hat with a layer of outdoor mod podge which, in theory, will protect the hat from the elements and then a layer of regular mod podge which makes it less sticky.

I encourage folks to check out their local Roller Derby team. It's a way for ladies to take on non-traditional roles and provides an escape from monotony for both players and fans alike!

Sun Tea is Fun Tea

For the past few weeks I have been trying to kick a Coke habit. Coke is expensive, it's not great for you, Coca Cola's labor practices are atrocious, and the manufacture of aluminum cans is hugely energy intensive and creates very toxic byproducts. Like most of my efforts to get clean and sober it was't going very well. Maybe I was down from five cans a day to four. I remembered that in college I used to drink tea endlessly in my dorm room, but boiling tea is energy intensive too and it's been too hot for hot drinks.

So I've started making sun tea. It's easy, delicious, healthy and cheap. You take a big, clear glass container, fill it with water, put tea bags in it and leave it in the sun for a few hours. The flavor isn't as strong as with boiled tea, but it's good. My mom likes Good Earth Original which has a nice, sharp cinnamon flavor. I like Celestial Seasonings because the bags aren't individually wrapped so there's much less waste and they have lots of berry flavors - Celestial Seasonings bags also don't have the string and handle that most tea bags do. We use 8 bags for a galleon (4 liters). After a few hours you can bring it in, let it cool to room temperature and then put it in the fridge. I move the tea to Nalgene and old Gatorade bottles, fill the big container up with fresh water and put it right back outside.

Brewing up some Good Earth Original sun tea

As a cyclist I need to drink well over a gallon a day, so the ability to cheaply and easily flavor water helps a lot. I get my caffeine kick but at a lower dosage than the Coke's. 

If you don't live someplace with clean tap water or aren't home during sunlit hours of course this advice is less practical. Oh, and by constantly drinking sun tea I'm down to one Coke a day.

Cleaning your bike chain the cheap and easy way

Everything I need for bike maintenance

Biking is great for your health, for your wallet, for the planet and, IMHO, for your soul. You're not paying for gas and you're not pumping fossil fuel fumes into the air. Bike maintenance is also much cheaper than auto maintenance - but there are ways to make it cheaper still.



I think that the vast majority of bike maintenance boils down to keeping the drive train (the chain and gears) in good condition. Rusted or eroded drive trains seem to account for the vast majority of bike deterioration; having kept my chain in good condition I have had to do very little else to keep my bike running well over 4 years and thousands of miles. If you take your bike in for maintenance, the main thing the mechanics do will probably be to clean and oil your drive train. By doing some simple maintenance on my chain and gears I have avoided needing to take it in for maintenance for the last 4 years and many thousand miles. (I've also replaced one chain that rusted in my basement while I was in Namiba, one pedal and the bar tape. I replaced the breaks and most of the wiring on my old mountain bike).

Dirty chain and gears

When you work on your chain, the first thing you will do is take off the dirtied oil and all the crap that's sticking to it. The oil serves an essential purpose of lubricating the chain and protecting it from rust, but over time and as you bike it will collect dust and grit. Having that stuff pass through your drive train will reduce the smoothness and efficiency of your pedaling and add wear-and-tear. So your first job is to remove it all. You can buy chain degreasers, but like most specialist products they are overpriced. A better solution is to use diluted dish soap. I use the Park Tool CM-5 Cyclone Chain Cleaner (without the CleanBrite solution; you'll use diluted Dawn) to really scrub the chain, although for years I got by just using rags and wire bristle brushes. I bike every day and clean my chain at least once a month, so I'm glad I bought the Cyclone, but if you're a less frequent rider you'll need less frequent cleanings so buying special tools is unnecessary. Expect your hands to can dirty doing this, especially if you use a rag (layer it - the grease will soak through) but the dish detergent will clean them too. Cleaning dirty grease stains out of your clothes is iffy at best so don't wear nice clothes.

The Cyclone makes things easy but you can use a wire brush and a bunch of rags.

So now your filthy old chain looks shiny and new. However, it's not ready to ride on; you've removed the lubrication and rust protection. So you need to add it back by applying chain lube. I recommend Finish Line. At this point my attention is wandering so I do it the easy way: I pour some on the chain and then run the chain by pedaling while cycling through all the gears to make sure that all contact surfaces are well lubricated.

This is most of what a bike shop would do for your recommended annual checkup, but they'd charge you $50 or more.

The diluted dish detergent removes the dirty lube. Then you'll need to reapply clean lube. This is the majority of bike maintenance. 

I think it's also a good idea to run degreaser (dish soap) on a rag over the rims of your wheels. Grease and gunk that builds up there may make it harder for your breaks to grip. Then clean the degreaser off with water and of course do not lube your rims!

After two years and many thousands of miles, this chain looks and rides almost like new.

Surprisingly clean hands, because I used the Cyclone and layers of rags. Normal washing
won't remove those stains easily but dish detergent will.

If you want to go the extra mile for environmentally conscious bike maintenance, many cyclists swear by using Simple Green as the solvent. I have never done this nor used Simple Green for anything, but it may be ecologically better than Dawn. 

The purpose of this blog

Dear Friends,
After taking a class on sustainable living this summer and hearing some inspiring stories from friends, I've decided to try and orient my lifestyle to be more in-line with my ideals (and my income). My hope is that we can use this blog to share tips on DIY projects and other methods for cutting down waste in our lives. These tips can be as grand as you like, or as simple as the observation that Gatorade bottles are rugged and relatively wide-necked and therefore better for reuse than most disposable plastic bottles. I'm talking about recipes, gardening, composting, recycling, energy savings, money savings, ideas for repairing, reusing and repurposing things that typically get thrown out, or finding cheaper and less ecologically impactful ways of doing things. Also please feel free to ask questions, for example does anyone know how I can get line dried clothes to be soft and unwrinkled like when they come out of the dryer?

If I've set it up right, everyone I've invited should be able to post their ideas.