As a daughter of an ex-upholsterer, I have upholstery stuff all over the house. Some are still in pretty big quantities, like curtain rings.
I believe that there are many things that can be done with rings, one of the things that came to my mind right away was coasters!
My problem was: how can I keep all the rings together?
The answer that came to my mind was simple...crochet!

I am going to show you how to make a flower shaped coaster simply joining together a few rings.
You can play with rings and create any shape you like! You can see all the ones I made above.

Happy crocheting!

Step 1: What You Need

7 curtain rings (or any other kind of pretty large rings)
cotton thread n° 3
crochet hook n° 4 - 1.75
white glue
scissors

The sizes of the rings, thread and hook are all up to you, you don't necessarely have to use the ones I wrote here.

List of stitches:

chain stitch
slip stitch
single crochet - sc

Step 2: First Row of Single Crochets

Let's start taking the thread and crochet hook and make a slipknot.
Now take a ring and make as many sc as you need to cover the whole ring with thread - you must work all around the ring. There is not a a definite number of sc because it very much depends on the size of the ring you are using.

When you finally finish to cover the whole ring, make a slip stitch in the first sc.

Step 3: Last Row of Single Crochets

Chain 1 and make another row of sc, all around the ring, on the sc you made previously.
When you end the circle, make a slip stitch in the first chain and close everything, cutting the thread.

Cover all the 7 rings this way.

Step 4: Join the Rings Together

Take 2 of the rings you've just covered.
You need to join them together now.
You will have to work on the back of the rings so that all the threads will be hidden behind the coaster.

Make a slipknot.
Now, keeping the 2 rings against each other, make 3 sc passing the thread through both rings. With rings, I mean the last crocheted row you made for the "frame" around the ring. It's much easier to do than to explain. You just have to "saw" the 2 rings together making 3 sc.
When you are done, close and cut the thread.

Step 5: Compose the Flower!

Keep joining all the rings together just like the first 2 ones, composing a flower shape.

Remember to always "saw" the rings on the back.

When you are done, cut the exceeding threads on the back of the coaster, trying to stay close to the knots, but not too close otherwise they may loosen.

Step 6: A Little Bit of Glue...and You Are Done!

To make sure that all the knots stay firm, I decided to put a little bit of white glue on each one of them.

When the glue is finally dry and transparent, the parts with the knots will be harder so you don't have to worry about them anymore!

Your coaster is done! All you need to do now is cook something you love and try your new coaster! :)