Our Story
Beverage Bling started in the hometown of Harrison, Ohio as a fun, creative outlet during Lesley’s retirement. She watched some videos about upcycling cans, made a few tweaks of her own and the upcycled, corrugated can earrings were born! After some positive affirmations the recruitment began. Daughter, Leah does the socials and shows. Son, Jace keeps track of the finances. Husband, Joe and son-in-law Ian take care of the building and grunt work. We are working together so we can vacation together somewhere with style!
The Process
To get to the fun and artistic part of making the earrings, it does take a bit of drudgery. What else would you call popping, washing, rinsing, stabbing, twisting, cutting, flattening, baking and peeling? Nope, not dance moves. Not things you do prepping for dinner. Continue on and you will understand.
First, I pop the tabs
to donate to a worthy cause.
Time for a simple scrub. No need to sanitize here. (Keep going - you’ll understand why!)
After gathering all of the cast iron in my kitchen, I stack it all on a cookie sheet and prop it on the edge of another cookie sheet. The goal is to unroll the cut cans, lay them flat on the bottom cookie sheet and positions the cast iron laden cookie sheet on top. The weight and the heat create the flat cans I make BLING out of! (Sometimes I think this is the hardest part! It is definitely the heaviest!)
Out of the oven and cooled off, the cans are ready to be alphabetized and styled!
Here I use a knife to slice a hole between the rim and the ridge of the can. Each can is then cut below the top ridge, down the side and around the bottom of the can. This is where it can be a bit treacherous, but I live on the edge and don’t wear gloves. (I do get poked and scraped.)
Next, I get the water ready to wash the cans.
The oven is loaded and the cans are ready to bake! The high heat takes care of any impurities, but it also alters some of the colors on the cans and sometimes even transfers color to the back of the can that is on top of it in the pile. This adds to the uniqueness of each piece!
*Note - Joe is looking into other ways to flatten the cans as this is apparently not the safest way to do it!! (What? The internet can’t be wrong?!)
This is what all of the work has been leading up to! Flat, upcycled beverage cans that will be turned into light, sustainably stylish earrings FOR YOU and YOURS!
If you are interested in having a custom order made from cans unique to the area you live in you can ship the cans in a box or, you can cut the cans like I do in the starred video above. We recommend you wear gloves and be careful when you are cutting - we take no responsibility for accidents. Once the cans can be laid flat you can put them between two pieces of cardboard and slide them into an envelope to be mailed.
Contact us at beverage.bling1@gmail.com for additional information.
While the sink is filling, the tops of the donated cans are removed. (This is an additional step that must be taken since rinsing the cans immediately keeps the nasty out and I am not always sure if this was done.)
Setting the oven to preheat to 450 degrees.
Got a style question? Ask away!
Pop your details in the form and let’s create something delightful together.