Technabob » upcycled

Mariclaro Upcycled Bags: Made from Airbags, Car Upholstery and Other Weird Stuff

Range — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:00:58 +0000

I never thought about reusing a spent airbag for much of anything, but it does make sense to upcycle this kind of durable material if you can. Toronto-based Mariclaro makes them all into backpacks and carryalls that are quite different from others that I’ve seen.

Mariclaro also salvages truck tarps, seat belts, bicycle inner tubes, and boat sails to created their laptop sleeves, messenger bags, briefcases and bags. 99% of each bag comes from upcycled materials. The remaining 1% is the thread and logo.

Some of their stuff is pretty cool, including the laptop sleeves made from bicycle inner tubes. Some of the bags are even waterproof as a bonus.

Prices start at around $29(USD) for an iPhone sleeve and go up to $299 for the Airbag Back Pack.

[via NOTCOT]

Recycled Ink Cartridges Get New Life as Lamps

Technabob — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:30:34 +0000

If you regularly use an inkjet printer, you can certainly try and recycle your cartridges by refilling them with more ink. But get real – most of the time, your empties just end up in the dumpster. Not so with these clever lighting fixtures made from the discarded shells of EPSON inkjet cartridges.

These lighting fixtures are first scrubbed of ink, then drilled, dremel-ed out and assembled into composite hanging lamps or individual ink cart lamps.

They’re available as single lamps ($30 USD), 4-cartridge box pendants ($45) or as an 8-cartridge chandelier ($150). Colors include matte black, cyan, light-cyan, magenta, light-magenta, yellow, light-black, and light-light-black depending on your mood. Personally, I’m always running out of magenta. I’m not quite sure what that says about me.

Now I don’t know what’s going in Durham, North Carolina, but I found variants of these lamps from two different Durham-based Etsy shops – LowellAndLouise and boxlightbox, both of whom are selling what look like the same ink cartridge lamps. I don’t know if these are the same guys, had the same idea at the same exact time, or if somebody just swiped somebody else’s idea. Whatever the case, I think they look cool.

[via The Design Town]

Speaker Bot: Recycled Robot Plays Your iPod Tunes in Style

Technabob — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:35:17 +0000

Looking for a unique dock for your iPod? You might want to check out Speaker Bot, a dock that looks like a retro 1950s robot.

The 18.5″ tall Speaker Bot is an “assemblage robot”, or in layperson’s speak, a robot made from old junk. This one-of-a-kind robot was created by New York’s Lipson Robotics, and was created from a variety of found objects. I actually think that 289V logo came from an old Ford Mustang. Sweet. And smack dab in the middle of his chest is one of those mini MP3 speaker amps, so he can crank out your tunes. I like the old iPod in the picture too – I wonder if that counts as a retro piece of junk now?

At $550 (USD), the Speaker Bot is not the cheapest iPod dock out there, but it’s clear a lot of work went into his assembly, so I think he’s worth it. You can check out Speaker Bot and a whole bunch of other cool upcycled robot sculptures over at Lipson Robotics’ Etsy shop.

Circuit Board Cufflinks for Formal Geeks

Technabob — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:33:48 +0000

Next time you need to go to a semiconductor semi-formal (see what I did there?), you might want to grab a pair of these clever geeky cufflinks made from old circuit boards. But unlike those shiny new 2010 Olympic medals, you can actually tell that these were upcycled from old circuitry.

Created by jewelry artist Amanda of the eponymous Beadwork by Amanda, these circuit board cufflinks are the perfect gift for the nerd who has everything. Assuming they have a tuxedo or dress shirt in their closet of course. And one of these doesn’t count.

Each set features a one-of-a-kind pattern, but you can specify different circuit board colors including green, dark green, red or blue, as well as whether you want round or square ‘links. Each circuit is set into either brass bezel cups and then covered with a durable resin to protect them from wear.

Amanda makes a variety of unique circuit board jewelry, including pendants, keychains and money clips over on her Etsy shop. The circuit board Cufflinks sell for $25 (USD) a pair – just a little more than that tuxedo t-shirt set you back.

[Thanks for the tip, Jay!]

Found Junk Becomes (Not So) Evil Robot

Technabob — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:05:59 +0000

According to Yllas, the artist who created these robot sculptures from old electronic parts, camera lenses, and other surplus junque – she was planning on building an evil robot. Instead she ended up with this guy, the Not So Evil Found Object Assemblage Bot. He’s available over at the Nutzen Bolts Works shop over on Etsy.