Make jewelry, home decor and even musical instruments from bicycle parts such as chains, spokes, rims, gears, brake cables, handlebars, pedals, seats and frames. You will never look at a bicycle the same way again after listening to this podcast episode and checking out the Trashmagination Pinterest board of items to make with bicycle parts.
Places to Bring Functional Bicycles You will need to find the organizations in your region, but here are three examples of organizations and how they gather bicycles.
Vietnam Veterans of America – national organizations who pick up bicycles
Bikes for the World – community organization which organizes community pick-up events
Community groups who train youth mechanices such as Phoenix Bikes in Arlington, Virginia or Gearin’ Up in Washington DC.
Artists Working with Bicycle Chains John T. Benedict
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Carolina Fontoura Alzaga
Young-Deok Seo
Projects You Can Do with Bicycle Chains Bicycle Chain Bracelet
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Bicycle Chain Holiday Star Ornament
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Basic Welding Tutorial
Bicycle Spoke Projects Bicycle Spoke Bracelet
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Bicycle Spoke Ornament
I love the designs by WinterWomanDesigns in New Hampshire.
Bicycle Spoke Kalimba
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Bicycle Pedals Made from Recycled Materials Bioplastic made from 70% rice husks and 30% recycled plastic bottles
Wood
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Leather
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What to Make with Bicycle Rims
Bicycle rim Tree of Life sculpture from wire
Tree of Life sculpture from t-shirt yarn
Bicycle Rim Wreath – attach whatever items you want around the edge instead of using a bent metal hanger
Bicycle rim display for cards, such as holiday cards – you attach the cards to the spokes with clothespins
Pot rack
Bicycle rim Christmas tree – Learn more about bicycles being made into Christmas trees from recycled materials
Crocheted design in bicycle rim
Crochet a piece to go over your back wheel as a skirt guard from the spokes.
Stained glass spinner – If you do stained glass, this is a fun project to attach triangles of color to the spokes for a garden decoration – http://www.fleamarketgardening.org/2013/05/07/make-a-stained-glass-garden-spinner/.
Bicycle rim Pole Trellis where the rim is mounted on the top of the pole so the rim is laying flat, and strings hang down for the plants to climb
Bicycle rim Circular Clothesline
A Garden Dome or Sphere
Bicycle rim fence trellis
What to Make with Bicycle Gears
Giant stained glass suncatchers like VeloGiolelli
Giant LOVE sign
What to Make with Bicycle Handle Bars, Seats and Frames Picasso set the standard for the creative reuse of handle bars and seats when he made a sculpture that looked like a stylistic bull’s head from these materials.
Two companies who make these bull’s heads for home décor or bicycle storage are:
Upcycles in the Netherlands (which they call the “Velodeer”)
Upcyclist Art
On my Pinterest board, you’ll find a lot of furniture and lamps made from bicycle handlebars, seats and frames
Check out Willie Cole’s piece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art made from bicycle frames
Bicycles and Knitting or Yarn Cyclo Knitter by George Barratt-Jones
Asma Chaudhary
Asma Chaudhary and her amazing bicycle trailer art
Betz White
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Bicycles as Art Marcel Duchamp
Tylur French ].
Jarbas Lopes
A series called Cicloviaérea or “Aerial Bikeway”
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David Clement from Jemicy Upper School
Discussed in the most popular episode of Trashmagination about recycled art contests
Bicycle Art by David Clement, Jemicy Upper School
Amazing Experiences on Bicycles My goal is not only to help you make more stuff from bicycles, but to have more amazing experiences. Here are three examples of people designing experiences from bicycles.
The Austin Bike Zoo
Welcome to The Bike Zoo! from The Bike Zoo on Vimeo.
My daughter and I had the opportunity to ride one of the Austin Bike Zoo butterfly bicycles at the World Maker Faire in New York City in 2013
Steven Baber
Composed a song called Bespoken made from sounds that he gathers from bicycles
Johnnyrandom | Bespoken from Johnnyrandom on Vimeo.
Merche Blasco
Composed a song to be played with bicycle bells
Show Details I’m still looking for broken or unwanted tents if you’d like to give them to me!
Script for this podcast episode about creative reuse of bicycle parts (not a transcript but gives the main ideas)
The Trashmagination podcast theme music is Kitchen from the Marian Circle Drum Brigade.