How did you think of such a thing? Why only crown caps? Did you really make them? Can’t believe it! I thought you got them from somewhere! It must have taken quite a while to make them! Are these used bottle caps or unused ones? Did you buy the small things that you’ve put into the caps? How does the cap look so shiny? Don’t tell me you’ve used discarded stuff! Amazing! I would never have thought a broken toy car had a use!
These are some of the reactions we’ve been getting since we started showing our CapsToKeep CapMagnets to people around.
On one of the rare days of mall shopping in Mumbai, a craft book on crown caps caught the attention of my son Gautam. “We can do this with the caps at home”, he said. Some years ago when we were on holiday, my sons went berserk at the caps they saw thrown on the lawns of the club where we stayed. This was the morning after a lawn party. It seemed as if the bearers were opening and throwing the caps from the bottles all night! My sons went around picking them up, to put into their “treasure boxes”. Little did they realize that they were helping clean up too. Anyway, these caps were way too many for the treasure boxes so they made their way to a big jar at home and we’ve had them ever since.
Coming back to CapsToKeep…
What started just as a pastime, has become almost an obsession. It’s been good fun and a productive with-TV multitasking activity. Initially we only made the caps. The time to make each cap depends on the creativity put in. Once there is an idea executed, repeating it is quicker. To finish them neatly does require care and effort though. Then we had so many caps and no proper way to keep them. That’s how the magnet idea came… a simple way to display them. Soon my neighbours who saw the CapMagnets requested some for their fridges or to gift to friends. And that’s how CapsToKeep became a brand! We’re available on facebook and on the PNLIT Store on eBay Charity. Profits from the sale of CapsToKeep go to Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT).
We have a steady stock of discarded caps – they are abundantly available because restaurants usually throw them away from soda, soft drink, beer bottles and the like (and in my neighbourhood, litter the place with them). It seems that it doesn’t make economic sense for shops to store them to give/ sell to recyclers. But we got one eatery to back our effort at reusing – they are careful not to bend the caps while opening the bottles and store their caps for us. Any pamphlet, ticket, wrapper, stray object, any “anything” is a candidate for a cap. Even silver charms! Anything that can get into a cap can turn out to be a magnetic attraction!
For now, CapsToKeep is just crown cap CapMagnets. You could do the same with any other caps. And you can move beyond magnets to other craft products. Try it. If you’ve neither the time nor inclination to do this yourself, but still wish to own some CapsToKeep, you know how to reach us!
arathimy 