Recycled Christmas: Vinyl LP platter

So this latest instalment of 'A Recycled Christmas' comes courtesy of my mum.... thanks mum!
Not being a blogger, or being aware ahead of time that I would have turned this into a tutorial had I known she was doing this awesome thing, she didn't take any photos of the process. But she's sent me these photos of the end product and a description of what she did which I'll relay to you :-)

All you need is your old unwanted vinyl records, an oven and some oven-proof bowls for moulding your platters. Trust me, this is really easy.

If you don't have any old vinyl records hanging around yourself, you can probably find them at any op-shop / thrift-store you care to visit. And probably pretty cheap too. Once you've got a stash, here's what you do...

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcius (approx 400 degrees Farenheit). Place your oven-proof bowl upside down on an oven tray and balance the vinyl record on top. Pop it into the oven for approximately 4 minutes (or longer depending on your oven).
 

One of two things will happen depending on the thickness / size of your vinyl record. Either it will be soft enough to melt over the bowl by itself and your work is done. Or if it's just pliable you can use your hands (with oven-mitts on please!) to shape and mould the record over your bowl. Then just leave them to cool and harden.

And there you have it..... your very own recycled vinyl LP platter. If you want to get fancy like my mum has you can attach handles (stolen from an old cake-server) through some holes drilled in the centre.

Here's another tip from my mum: If your vinyl record is too big for the bowl it's sitting on, it will melt over the sides but then stop when it hits the oven tray - leaving your bowl with a flat lip around it. You might not consider this such a bad thing. But if you want to avoid it then you'll need to prop up your moulding-bowl onto something higher (like another bowl!)

Also - I've got no idea on whether it's safe to eat food directly off this melted vinyl so I would suggest perhaps only serving wrapped food, or cover it with something first just in case.

My December Giveaway is open for a couple more days. Enter it here. 

xx