DIY: Rolled Magazine Paper Project - Behind The Scene

I’ve promised long ago that I will post a tutorial on the garbage bin, magazine rack and spice drawer I’ve made out of rolled magazine papers.  But I was kind of stumped on where to start as they are 3 different things and didn’t know which of this three I’d make a tutorial first.  So I decided on just putting here the basic concept of using rolled magazine papers to make A LOT of things because this is what's really important.  Knowing these basic concepts, can lead you to be able to make  A LOT of different things out of rolled magazine papers. Yes, you can do A LOT  of things using rolled magazine papers.  You are only limited by your imagination!

So let’s start with the basic concepts.

First is of course collecting old magazines.  I try to strip each page (or 10 at the same time) out.  I do not cut it from the binded side as I want to maximize the page that can be used.  Sometimes, depending on how the magazine is binded, there is no other choice but to cut it.  Anyways, I then fold the pages in half and cut. The size of the magazine does not really matter.  I try not to be picky with the type of magazine because I want to be able to recycle as much magazines as I can.  

Ok, so now, you have cut magazines.  Next is to start rolling the magazine pages into a tube-like shapes.   I tried to check out the internet on tutorial for this as I thought, surely, I am not the only one who thought about recycling magazines by rolling them.  This way, it may be easier for me to refer to this sites than recreating the steps to take pics, etc.  I wasn’t surprised really to find thousands of other people who are into this as well.  Their procedures are not very far from what I do but there are slight differences.   Like the way I roll the magazine pages.  I use a plastic rod where I honestly have no recollection what it was for.  I just found it one day lying on our floor and was about to throw it but then thought maybe one day, I would need it.  I am a pack-rat like that.  Other people do this by just folding the magazine paper from the long side.  I find this more time consuming. 

The plastic rod.  It's about 7mm in diameter.

I believe you can also use a long, thin pencil or whatever that has this shape.  The diameter of the rolled magazine paper will of course depend on the thickness of the “rod” that you will be using.  Here’s a short video on how I do it.

First you put the rod on the lower left corner of the paper in a slanting position. Then you start rolling until all the paper is rolled into the rod then you pull out the rod.  This is the part that is a bit difficult for me to explain so I made the video above… I hope it helps J

Another advantage of using the rod to make magazine strips is that the ends

After making TONS (as in gazillion of them, depends on what you want to do) of these rolled magazines (at this point, I will call them rolled magazine paper strips), we can already start with the next step. You don’t actually have to make a gazillion of them before rolling them into circular or squared shapes, etc… you can alternate the steps – it all depends on whatever is more convenient for you.

Now the next step is to roll these rolled magazine paper strips into whatever shape you like.  I’ve done circular (solid and a with a hole in the middle) and square.  The concept is just the same…  You will be the primary responsible on how it will take shape. Just like a potmaker on his pots.  So  let’s do the solid circular one as for me, this is the most basic of 'em all.   See the video below.

I thought of narrating the step but I am way too shy haha.  I actually hate hearing my voice on recording so… no, not this time :-D  Also please forgive me for the quality of the video. I do not have enough lighting and I didn’t have time to properly set up… I’m a first timer ;-)

Ok…  moving on.  So you just add more rolled magazine paper strips until you got the right size you are looking for. Now, to have a hole in the middle of your circular rolled magazine piece, you can just use a small bottle or whatever cylindrical object to wrap the rolled magazine paper strips… then you just take it out once you got the right size of the rolled magazine piece.  Or, you can just roll it leaving a small space (by wrapping it first on your thumb).  It doesn't have to be a perfect circle.  This project is very forgiving of imperfections... in fact, it can even give more uniqueness to the finished product.

Another way is to shape the rolled magazine paper into square.  I do this to make something that is square or rectangular in shape like a box or a chest (this is my upcoming project) perhaps J .  As I've said, the posibilities are endless (somewhat). 

So let’s say we now have a number of these rolled magazine pieces.  The next step is to put them together to construct something useful or decorative.   The process I do depends on the use of the end-product.  For instance,  with the magazine rack, since I want it to be sturdy and not break out if I try to push more magazines in it, I tied each piece with a nylon string.  I use a big needle to poke the nylon thred in the sides of the pieces and just tie it really tight.  Maybe next time, I can make a video for this.  The other way is just use hot glue.  This is what is mentioned from most of the tutorials I see.  For a garbage bin, hot glue should be enough.  You just try to put the pieces together and hot glue the sides that will touch the other pieces.  It’s simple really. 

I’ll try to make another tutorial that will focus on constructing these pieces together to actually form a real object that is useful or decorative J  as a tease, here’s my latest project:

This baby is about 65cm tall now.