Tresijas Dreams Up New Uses for Vinyl

Etsy Trashion Materials Focus: Vinyl

Trashion team member Kelly Wakefield-Beytia of Tresijas gives fresh twists to Vinyl records! We asked her a few questions about upcycling vinyl and here is what she had to say:

What do you make from vinyl?

Jewelry, combs, card holders, and whatever else I can dream up.

What do you love about vinyl?
What don’t I love about it?!
It’s incredibly forgiving. If I make a mistake or things don’t turn out how I thought they would, I just warm it up again and start over. It’s versatile, there’s not much that you can’t do with it. I love that I can walk into a thrift store and buy the records on the floor that are cracked or stepped on and make them into something useful.

What’s the largest challenge in reutalizing vinyl?

Not all records are fit for my artistic purposes, as a result my personal listening collection has almost tripled.


How long have you been working in this medium?

Almost one year.

Where do you find inspiration?

My biggest inspiration is nature and the infinite number of organic forms that she creates.


Delightful! Kelly your dreams of vinyl have brought whimsy and joy to us all! Thank you for sharing your talent and creativity with us!

Want to have some of her remastered LP creations for your very own? Go to her Etsy shop!

MissCourageous Does Vinyl with Pop Style

Etsy Trashion Materials Focus: Vinyl

Trashion team member Millie Hilgert of Miss Courageous reuses Vinyl with delightful pop flare! We asked her a few questions about upcycling vinyl and here is what she had to say:

What do you make from vinyl?

I use recycled record vinyl, and I make pendants, earrings and belt buckles out of it.

What do you love about vinyl?

The fun colors it comes in, the way the grooves look on the finished product, and the surprise on people's faces when you tell them: "that was a record"

What’s the largest challenge in reutalizing vinyl?

Cutting it, I hand cut all my pieces, record vinyl can be finicky, different colors behave differently and even the black records come in different thicknesses, and I've gotten several cuts & burns!

How long have you been working in this medium?

About 3 years.

Where do you find inspiration?

Everywhere! nature, architecture, street fashion...


Millie is also a team leader for the Idaho Indie Works Street Team! She says "Whether raising children, pursuing a career, or overcoming obstacles that life can throw you, there's a little "Miss Courageous" in each of us!"

Thank you for nurturing our heroic sides, while sharing just how creative one can be with vinyl!

Interested in discovering more about Millie Hilgert and her work? Check out her blog, and website. Want to have some of her Pop accessories for your very own? Go to her Etsy shop!

EyePopArt Upcycles Vinyl with Passionate Art

Etsy Trashion Materials Focus: Vinyl

Trashion team member Christine Claringbold of Eye Pop Art gives new life to Vinyl records with amazing talent! We asked her a few questions about reuseing vinyl and here is what she had to say:

What do you make from vinyl?

I create mandala art, home decor, and wearable accessories from upcycled vinyl records.

These include my Popsicle Clocks, Mandala Record Bowls, Feng Shui Mirrors, Roman Record Cuffs, and Eye Candy Cuffs.

What do you love about vinyl?

I love vinyl records because they are perfect circles with a perfectly defined center - perfect for creating mandalas!

I also love them for being flexible and easy to manipulate into other unexpected forms.

I love that they are so abundant - people give them to me all the time.

I love that they are retro-cool and easily recognizable, and they make people feel a bit nostalgic. People are always amazed to flip over one of my bowls and read the original record label.

I also love the fact that they represent a hugely important part of my life, which is MUSIC! I love to listen to records, I grew up on records as did my husband, and we still love to spin discs, as do our kids. But there are so many old, crappy, scratchy, unplayable records out there that people can't seem to get rid of, and these are the ones to which I love giving new life.


What’s the largest challenge in re-utilizing vinyl?
Well, it was a big challenge to me to figure out how to cut them so I could start making cuffs. Now that I have that figured out, it's a breeze! I do prime all of my records before painting them and I guess that is the biggest pain of the process - it's not challenging, but I don't enjoy it that much so I tend to procrastinate on doing it.

How long have you been working in this medium?
I started painting records in 1997. 11 years!

Where do you find inspiration?
I have always been inspired by the psychedelic '60s. I love the mad patterns, bold colors, stylized florals and paisleys and weird motifs that characterized that era (including the music!). I have a really huge collection of vintage psychedelic coffee cups and the designs on them have inspired me a lot. I also get inspired by working with children. I teach art to kids and just love the beautiful works of art they create.

Wow! Christine you have certainly taken vinyl to a place of extraordinary beauty. Thank you for sharing your talent and creativity with us!

Interested in discovering more about Christine Claringbold and her work check out her blog, and website. Want to have some of her passionate creations for your very own? Go to her Etsy shop!

Materials focus: What is Vinyl anyway?

In August we will be focusing on vinyl and the trashion team members who revision it as an central part of their art. Which leads me to ask:

What is Vinyl anyway?

Vinyl is a synthetic man-made material. It is a type of plastic that is made from ethylene (found in crude oil) and chlorine (found in regular salt). When processed, both the substances are combined to form Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) resin, or as is commonly referred to - Vinyl.

The word comes from the Latin vinum = "wine", because of its relationship with alcohol (in its original sense of ethyl alcohol).

A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group (also called ethenyl), -CH=CH2. These are derivatives of ethylene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom substituted with some other group.

Where have you seen vinyl?

When someone says vinyl, I immediately think of a gramophone record, or vinyl record. A vinyl record is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc.

Vinyl has found many applications in the medical world because of its non-hazardous properties. Vinyl is commonly used for making the following medical products; Intravenous Fluid Bags and containers, bags, Goggles, Caps, Inhalation Masks, Mouthpieces, Dialysis Equipment, Medical Sealants, Ear Protectors, Thermal Blankets, Gloves, and Valves.

Look around your home, and the houses in your neighborhood you may be amazed to discover that almost 60% of all vinyl made in the United States is used in construction and furnishings.*
Here are some of the applications of vinyl in construction; Siding and window frames, Roofing, Gutters and down spouts, Coverings for walls and floors, Piping for water distribution, sewage, and irrigation systems, Fencing, railing, and decking, Insulation of wiring, Electrical conduit, and Fire sprinkler piping.

That's an enormous amount of material people could be adding to landfills, which by the way are commonly lined with Vinyl (as see in the image to the right, they are laying the vinyl to develop a landfill). Which is where the artisans of Trashion Street Team come in!

*Statistic quoted from http://www.whatisvinyl.com/