My favourite vinyl record art by Jean Shin. Soundwave.

April 18th, 2015 is Record Store Day, a day to celebrate those musty smelling, awesome sounding, little gems that help preserve the sanctity of good music and real actual offline interaction with real actual music lovers!

So in honour of this special day, I’m destroying records! Isn’t it ironic? But don’t worry, no non scratched records were harmed in the making of this blog, though saying that, do you think the world would miss another Nana Mouskouri record…. there’s a reason why there’ s at least 20 in every thrift store.

There are lots of things you can do with vinyl records. I’ve chosen to make a bowl today, but at Christmas time, I plan to make some clocks as gifts with personalised record labels made by my little one, something like:

Grandparents Rock! Side One:
1. Your hair smells of tea
2. Please feed me more sugar
3. Lavender Soap

Making clocks out of vinyl records is really easy, just buy the clock pieces and fit to the record. Labelling just requires some hand drawing or printing and cutting a circle – easy like Sunday morning.

Making bowls from vinyl records is just as easy and takes about 15 minutes.

I used the Flashdance Soundtrack. It wasn’t scratched. Hipsters don’t hate on me

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 235 degrees F
2. Grab a baking tray and set an oven proof bowl on in it
3. Centre the vinyl record on top of the bowl
4. Put a heavy tin of vegetables/chickpeas/etc on the label of the record, this will force the record to bend into the bowl as it melts. (Without this the record may flop over the bowl. It’s still malleable enough to mould like this, so have a play, you may find something your prefer)
5. Put the record into the oven and open the windows and put the fan on, in case of fumes (I never experience any noxious fumes)
6. Wait about 4 minutes and keep a close eye on the project, dependent on the quality of the vinyl it may start to flop pretty quickly and you want to be able to adjust it if needs be
7. When you see it flop, take it out of the oven and adjust and mould as necessary. I always have to adjust the tin of vegetables to push the record into the bowl and then I use a knife and fingers to mould the edges.
8. Done!

Remember to use the necessary heat proof protection for your hands as the tray, bowl, tin and vinyl will obviously get very hot. I’ll be honest, I use my fingers to mould the vinyl when it has cooled a little, I find it much easier to manipulate this way, but don’t be stupid, PLEASE wait until it has cooled so that you don’t lose your fingerprints. You can keep putting the bowl back in the oven if you need to soften the vinyl so you can keep moulding.

I use my bowls for all sorts, they make great dishes for candy or practical stuff like paper clips etc and they also make great gifts for music lovers on record store day!