START WEAVING MAGAZINE COASTERS

We created this woven magazine coaster when we were bored and fidgeting with our fingers in front of the TV a while back. We were appalled by the amount of magazines our sisters buy and throw away every month. There has to be something useful we can make from them. We were inspired by those little woven paper hearts we used to make as kids for our candies. The sturdiness of folded magazine paper impressed us.

Though it is something you would throw away, we saw how wonderful they can be as 'raw' materials.

• They are water absorbent and dry fairly quickly.
• They are colorful. We remember recycling them for our art projects to make collages.
• They are free, considering you are going to throw them into the recycling bit.
• They are really sturdy when folded into a substantial thickness.

We have posted some instructions before. But those were from early days when we were overworked in the office and only had a camera phone. This is a fun project and it will get easier after a few practice. The result are wonderfully urban chic woven coasters to set any dinner party talking. It makes a great gift and addition to any home. Many people have asked for a complete and clearer set of instructions and we are presenting them to you here;

1. You will need a magazine. Fashion magazines are the best as they come in a rainbow of colors. The grammage also makes it easy to fold.

2. Flip through the magazine and see which color pages catch your fancy. You can pick pages with words or just pictures.

3. Find the page you like and bend the spine as much as possible to somewhat break the glue. It is also important to make sure that your magazine is glue bound. Use a pen knife to score the glue, your page will come out beautifully.

4. Score and remove 4 pages. Those 4 pages will determine the color scheme of your coaster.

5. Fold the A4 or US Letter size page in half.

6. We like to use the back of the pen knife to flatten all the folds. This helps to make sure your weaving strips are equally flat and also makes slicing easier.

7. Slice the page in half.

8. Fold the half in half again.

9. Slice.

10. You will be left with 4 quarters from the magazine page. Flip to the side of the paper with your preferred color.

11. Fold a quarter into half.

12. Fold one edge inwards.

13. Fold the other edge in. This is to hide all the edges so you will be left with reinforced edges that do to tear easily.

14. Fold the strip into half. This will be your weaving strip, creating a "V". You will need to make 16 of them.

15. To begin weaving, you will need to 'lock' the 2 'V's together. This is essential in keeping all the weaves in place. These are your base strips.

16. Take a 3rd strip. The base strip should go into the 'V' of this 3rd strip.

17. Take another strip and weave it on top of the base. The rule to remember – A strip should always be wrapped over another strip. It should always go into the 'V' of another strip.

 18. Continue adding strips to the base. Remember, into the 'V' of one strip, over the 'V' of another strip.

19. You would have successfully woven the first 2 rows. Now you will learn to finish the end so that the strips will not move out of place as you continue to weave.

20. Trim off one side of the strips.

21. Fold the remaining strips over to gauge the length. The base strip is long enough to be tucked into 2 squares.

22. Tuck the base strip into the 1st square.

23. Tuck the end of the base strip into the 2nd square.

24. Gauge the other strip. It is longer than the square it can be tucked into.

25. Trim the excess length off the strip.

26. Tuck in the trimmed strip. It will hide the edge.

27. You would have successfully secured the 1st 2 rows now. It should look like this.

28. Weave through the next strip. It helps to give you a tighter weave by folding down the alternative strips.

29. Complete the weave on the other side. Trim and secure the end of the strip.

 30. Continue weaving and securing the ends until you have achieved 8 by 8 squares.

31. Trim off one side of all the strips and continue to trim, tuck and secure the ends as described in steps 24-26.

32. Congratulations on weaving your 1st magazine coaster. You can also make a smaller coaster by 14 strips and achieving a a 7 by 7 square.

To learn how to make a smaller, thicker strip, check out our old post on a 3-fold strip.