THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Searching online for that perfect piece of a kitchen utensil can be a pain if you have specifics about its make and looks. Last week, I noticed an empty plastic drink jar that got empty.
It was thick. It had a unique hand-friendly design. And it threatened to make me cry - I simply could not trash it.
Let’s just say the need for a large container enough to hold ladles, and the availability of such a bottle coincided. I needed one other thing in my kitchen, and scoured the internet away, with hardly any satisfying results - steel or copper funnel to ease storing grains. Too expensive. The drink bottle was a perfect fit for my need.
You can try this with thick plastic bottles that come with drinks or old plastic kitchen boxes that have a good depth.
The bright yellow cap I kept aside for future projects.
Materials Used
■ a nose plier
■ tweezer
■ candle and matchbox
■ fine-point marker pen
■ Gold hue paint pen to decorate
Method
■ Run the masking tape along the jar, and cut.
■ Make sure to pull out the `tab’ ring from the funnel half of these two pieces.
■ Trim the uneven edges a little with the craft knife, the way you used to sharpen a pencil as a kid.
■ Now, you make cut the container into two with all the precision in the world, but you may get hurt when you deal with sharp edges. Here is where a candle comes in handy.
■ Lit the candle and run the cut or sharp edges of the two pieces one after another over its flame. The idea is to blunt the edges out.
■ The funnel is ready. Uneven on edges but a functional utility piece that will ease your kitchen woes.
■ Run the jar half of the drink bottle over the candle next. You may colour it and draw away some lines. Try a wavy border to go with its uneven edges.
■ And the ladle holder is ready for use.
■ To use it as a funnel, choose a container with thick plastic. If the container has plastic that is less thick, it can be repurposed for other uses - jewellery, toys and the likes.
(www.imprintshandmade.com)