Bottle Cap Figure

Got a few bottle caps lying around and feeling a little lonely? Make your own wee fully posable friend in a few simple steps. For a basic figure I use 19 bottle caps and about 60cm of wire. The wire needs to be from about 1 to 2mm thick, if using thinner wire you can double it as I've done here. However you do it you'll need one 10cm piece and two 26cm pieces. Tools include needle nose pliers, hammer and nail or a drill with 2mm and 3mm bits.

The caps are attached to the wire in two ways, making a hole and feeding the wire through or bending the cap around the wire. To make holes you can use a hammer and nail or for more precision use an electric drill and a 2mm or 3mm metal drill bit.

Supplies

19 bottle caps, wire, pliers, hammer and nail or drill

Step 1: The Head

Choose your best looking bottle caps for the hat and face, make a hole (2mm drill bit) in the centre of the hat piece and make two holes in the rim at opposite side of the face piece. Make sure to orient the bottle cap the right way round when making the holes so that the writing or image is the correct way up. Take the 10cm piece of wire and thread it through the face cap and then through the hat cap, use pliers to make a small bend in the wire so that the caps don't slide off.

Step 2: The Body

Use seven caps for the body, make a larger hole (3mm drill bit) in the centre of each cap then thread them all onto the body wire under the face.

Step 3: The Legs

For the feet make a small hole (2mm bit) in the centre of the cap and then another hole in the rim. Take a 26cm piece of wire and thread it through the centre hole then bend round and out the rim hole, have enough wire coming through to be able to bend it round so it touches the wire coming out of the central hole. For the legs use needle nose pliers to crimp a cap on opposite sides then using either just your fingers or the pliers fold the cap almost in half, place the cap round the wire then close it completely so that one side is behind the other. Add another cap then repeat this process for the second leg.

Step 4: Joining Legs to Body

This bit can be tricky depending on how thick your wire is and how big you made the holes in the body caps. From the bottom thread the leg wire up through the seven body pieces then out at the "neck". Do this for both legs and then pull the wire tight so that the "thighs" are up close to the body.

Step 5: The Arms

Fold two more caps for each arm and add them on to the wire. For the hand bend the wire at the end around your pliers then fold over the wrist and crimp.

Step 6: Finishing Off

Now you just need to tighten it up by pulling the body wire down and then wrapping it around the leg wires. A bit of tweaking and your figure should be able to stand by itself. From past experience problems can arise if the holes for the feet are too big as this make the "ankles" loose.