How to Make Magazine Bowls

by Tara Prigge (twowishes)

I'm far from the first person to have discovered magazine bowls. I learned to make them through a tutorial over on Craftster. But even that tutorial was inspired by products that have been sold in stores for a long time. Generally, artists in developing nations use traditional bamboo-weaving techniques with recycled newspapers to create bowls like the spare black-and-white newspaper beauties from Hip & Zen or this more colorful "Confetti" version from The Friends of the Seattle Public Library:

A version of these items can be created from magazine pages at home. It's a time-consuming process, but quite easy and relaxing to work on while you're watching TV. There are four basic steps.

First, gather lots of colorful magazine pages! You'll be folding the pages into strips, so you're really only interested in the strip of color that will end up showing -- roughly two inches on the clean (as opposed to torn) edge of the page. I tend to make my bowls along color lines (browns, reds, black-and-white, etc.), while other people believe the more colors, the better!
Second, fold each page horizontally into roughly equal strips. I usually fold the strips about 1 1/2" wide. I use a glue stick to attach the outside edge of the strip so that the strip is compact and easier to work with later in the process. (This is either a brilliant development on my part or an enormous waste of time and energy; I haven't been able to figure that one out.) There's a lot of variation in this process between different crafters. Some people roll diagonally, as I believe was described in the original Craftster tutorial linked above. Others cut their strips to equal widths rather than folding. I chose my process because I believe that folding horizontally is easiest, and I'm all about the easy. Here's what a small stack of finished strips looks like:
When you've got dozens of finished strips, start rolling them into a coil. I usually glue-stick my first 4 or 5 strips for extra stability because you want them to stay in a tight, smooth roll. (But, again, maybe I just need to justify my purchase of that 12-pack of glue sticks!) After that, you'll start in with the Scotch tape. Use a piece of clear tape to attach each strip to the next in one long "snake." Note that, once you have your base started, I find it's often easiest to make a long snake of 10-12 strips in your lap and then add them to the coil all at once, rather than adding each strip to the coil as you go. It's easier to work in a strip than on a round surface. Meanwhile I keep a rubber band around the coil to ensure it's tightly rolled even when I'm not working with it. Your coil will end up looking like a big coaster or trivet:
To make your big coil into a 3-dimensional bowl or pot, place your thumbs into the center of the coil, and pull upward on the sides with your fingers. The sides will "telescope" upwards until you wind up with a pot shape. This part is fun! You can keep sliding the slats around until you find what works best for you. I often require quite a bit of arranging and rearranging until I find a shape that's not lopsided but not too boringly perfect.... Sometimes it helps to use an existing pot or bowl as a guide. This particular magazine bowl is intended as a new home for a fake plant with a broken pot, so I popped the plant inside to be sure it would fit -- not something you want to find out afterward!

Once you find the shape you like, pull out your trusty ModPodge and give the pot a few coats to keep it intact and give it strength. And you're done! Here's my new pot, still held together with its rubber band, waiting for ModPodge. It's being kept company by a couple of completed pots destined as a gift for a friend. The pots make great gifts because they're natural containers for chocolate or cookies or beauty products, baby gifts, or whatnot....

My favorite part of magazine bowls is always the view from the top:

Tara Prigge is a blogger and crafter in Washington, DC. Her blog can be found at http://twowishes.typepad.com.

Tags: bowls, magazine, recycling

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Permalink Reply by Angie Vandenbogaard on August 29, 2007 at 11:22am: So neat! I think I might just give that a try! :)

~angie; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by xxRobot on August 29, 2007 at 9:40pm: WOW! Those look really neat, I am going to have to try this out.
I saw some stuff kinda like this at pier1 (for boatloads of $$, of course); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Angel Robinson on August 30, 2007 at 12:48am: I have tons of magazines that I have been debating whether or not to just throw away. I knew I could do SOMETHING with all that paper! Thank you so much for this post. I'm getting started tomorrow!!!!!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Melody Kristensen on August 30, 2007 at 2:26pm: Those are awesome!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lady Wurlitzer on August 31, 2007 at 9:05am: I'm just about to embark on a pretty hefty refurbishment of my flat. Once all the messy stuff is over I'll look forward to folowing your instructions and making myself a few interesting magazine bowls for my living room! Thank you!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kinichi River Designs on September 7, 2007 at 7:30pm: I never thought of this, but I love it!!! Thanks for sharing!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kae on September 17, 2007 at 4:37pm: The bowls are beautiful - thanks for sharing the how-to's. Our Friends of the Library group is always buried in magazines. Maybe we can now do something with them.

Kae; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kimberly Hull on October 2, 2007 at 2:27pm: This is just amazing. I was just sitting in my living room last week looking at the pile of magazines I don't need any longer and wondered what I could do with them. I think I will give this a try. AWESOME!!!! :O); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Judy on October 7, 2007 at 9:37am: Great way to recycle, and give your trash to a friend. Seriously, I've GOT to try this!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tabitha Bianca on October 10, 2007 at 3:43pm: I need to try this!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Red Crow Arts on October 11, 2007 at 1:14pm: This looks like a fun camping project by the campfire just lounging around. Thanks for sharing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by LostCreekCreations on November 22, 2007 at 9:09am: Wow, these are so cool. I am definitely going to try making these. Lord, knows I get enough magazines through the mail!; ▶ Reply to This