As much as you may enjoy using your discarded tin cans to have top secret conversations make yourself taller, you'd like to know if there's anything creative to do with tin cans. Here are some ideas to get you started. [more inside]
posted by orange swan on Nov 9, 2008 - 31 comments

What to do once your beer is all gone All right, so you’ve finished your beverage. You’ve discreetly released the gas from your digestive tract via your mouth. And now you want to dispose of the empty can. You consider your options. Public-spirited as you are, you are too savvy to believe that you can redeem the pull tab for a wheelchair or a dialysis machine, or that an aluminum beanie will protect your brain from alien forces, and you are far too civilized to smash the can against your forehead. As a responsible, ecologically minded person you could recycle, but you’re also creative, and recycling would leave that artistic urge unsatisfied. So, perhaps you whip up a morning glory wreath for the front door. Or an airplane. Or a honeybee. Or the Starship Enterprise, a shark, a knight in shining aluminum armour, a piano, a hot rod, a Christmas tree, roses for your beloved, or Easter lilies for your mother. Or whatever else strikes your fancy. Then you have twin epiphanies: that you’ve entered the wonderful world of aluminum crafting, and that after emptying all those cans you urgently need to pee.
posted by orange swan on Nov 6, 2006 - 22 comments

Canstruction is a very cool exhibit at the New York Design Center. Take a look at some of these very well done sculptures made using just cans.
posted by riffola on Nov 11, 2005 - 9 comments

If you're the type who gets creative when you drink a lot, the folks at Canstruction have a few ideas about what you can do with the discarded empties. Here's a slide show of some good examples, and here are the winners of their contests in 2002 & 2003 respectively.
posted by jonson on Jul 25, 2003 - 14 comments