Episode 6 TOTALLY RUBBISH

I'm Nigel.

I'm Michelle.

'We're going to show you how to turn useless rubbish...'

What are you going to do with this lot?

'..into amazing, useful stuff.'

So cool.

'All here on...'

Coming up - we meet an artist

who creates incredible fashion from old plastic bags.

We visit someone who wants

to convert her carriers into something cool.

And we show you how to make a nodding pet

that would be perfect for your room.

But first...

Check it out - one jumping spider

Do you guys like spiders?

SHE SCREAMS

'Apparently not.'

You look like a tough lad, can you hold my spider for a second?

'That will be a no then.'

-Hey, girls, are you scared of spiders?

-SHE SCREAMS

'I'd say very.'

Are you scared of spiders, girls?

What? Argh!

-Yeah, we did well there.

-We did indeed.

Right, I'm going to make it.

I'm going to show you how to prank your mates out of stuff

you have lying around.

So here's how you make your very own jumping spider.

First, grab yourself a piece of card,

maybe from an old cereal packet or something like that,

and then you need to draw your spider on it.

I think the bigger the better for this one.

All of his eight legs.

There we go. Sorted.

I've got my spider drawn on my card,

and now all I need to do is cut it out.

Once you've cut your spider out,

you'll have something that looks just like that.

Next, you need to do the spider's head.

For that, I've got a little tip. Use the bottom of an old egg box -

make sure you've finished with the eggs - and you're just going

to cut out the base bit here, this square area.

It's going to look something like this.

And that is going to stick on to the front of the spider.

Then for the back, for the spider's bum,

grab yourself an old scouring pad,

something like this you can find under the sink,

and cut out a circle from it, just like that.

And this is going to stick right on the back there.

It just makes it look really effective,

the spider's nice big back.

Before you stick them down, you're going to paint them black.

Start with the spider first.

Make sure you paint the front and the back, as well,

cos when it's jumping in the air, you'll see the under side,

so make sure it's all covered in paint.

Once you've painted the three sections of the spider,

you're going to leave them to dry,

and you'll have three bits, like this.

And then all you're going to do is stick them on

to the main base of the spider with some glue.

So the circular bit is the spider's bum,

and then this will stick on the top.

So, once that's stuck down, you'll have something that looks like this.

It's coming to life already.

Next, the best bit, you need to make your jumping mechanism.

This is really, really cool.

Grab yourself two paperclips, large ones just like that,

and all your going to do is open them out.

Pull them apart, like this.

So, they'll look something like this, OK?

What you need to do with the ends of the paperclips

is just bend them down really simply, like that.

So, they're bent down, and they're bent down.

What you now need to do is weave the two paperclips into each other.

So, if you just watch me,

I'm going to put the white one into the blue one.

So, these blue legs are going into this hole, like that,

and then you should be able to pull them both together, like this.

There you go, and they're nice and secure.

It's a clever trick, that.

Right, so let's see if it works.

Press down on the white bit...

Perfect. Jumped off the table, it was so good!

So, this is going to stick on the under side of your spider

just with a bit of sticky tape.

Grab your tape...

stick them down, so they're nice and secure,

and then the only final thing to do

is just add a bit more decoration to the spider.

I've added just some green detail just around the legs

and on the head.

And now, obviously, you've got to try it out.

So, let's give this one a jump.

Three, two, one...

Perfect! There you have your own jumping spider.

If you're not into spiders,

how about trying a different kind of insect?

Maybe a cricket or a ladybird, something like that.

But have a go and get jumping.

Incredibly it can take up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag

to decompose on land, and 450 years in water,

and I'm here to meet someone who wants to do something brilliant

with her bundles of bags

Meet Abi. She loves shopping.

If she could, she'd spend every spare hour buying things.

So, she has hundreds of shopping bags.

She's got loads of use from the things she has bought,

but what about the bags?

So, Abi, what's the deal, how can we help?

Well, I've got too many plastic bags

and they're all just stored up at home.

OK, and is it true that I hear you're into fashion?

I love shopping and clothes.

So, too many plastic bags and you love shopping.

Well, I know someone who can make a bit of bling

out of all of your old plastic bags. Check this out.

I'm Adnan Bayyat.

I'm a designer who works predominantly

with recycled materials.

Today, I'm going to show you how to make a dress from plastic bags.

This is a wedding dress I made from 25,000 pieces of jigsaw

and 5,000 metres of shoelaces.

This dress is made from Clingfilm,

and it was worn by Lady Gaga herself.

Before I start making a dress, I always tend to make a design.

I've got some ideas which I've come up with earlier,

and I've been really inspired by the idea of swirls.

Don't worry, this sketch can really be quite a rough starting point,

it's just a scribble.

Now that I'm ready to do my dress,

I've found some plastic bags around the house.

Roll it about three times, that's all you need.

Now I need to cut this plastic bag into strips.

What I usually use for a measure is my finger.

Make sure you have enough of the plastic bags before you start.

If you're making a design with orange plastic bags,

you don't want to run out halfway through.

The finger rule.

For the next stage, I'm going to need a hula hoop

and I've placed 14 drawing pins equally apart to form the loom.

I'm just looping all of these together

so I've got enough to go around the hula hoop.

Now I'm going to show you how to weave.

Loop it under, make a knot, you go over the first one,

under the next one.

Once you reach the end of the strip, you need to attach

a different colour, and then over and under all the way around.

There you have your swirly pattern.

Tie off all of these loose ends

so that the weaving that we've done doesn't fall apart.

Tie your swirls together.

As you're doing this, you'll realise that thinner

plastic bags are a lot easier to work with, as they're more flexible.

You should end up with something like this.

What I'm going to show you now is a technique

that makes this into a fabric so it's a lot stronger and wearable.

Your iron has to be on a very, very hot temperature.

'And remember, always get a grown up to help you when using one.'

Once you're happy that your swirls have cooled, you can pick them up

and see the end result - very sturdy and solid.

Using all of these sections, I am going to create

the front of the dress.

I'm attaching the clasps to make sure that the dress holds together.

Ta-dah! There you go, this is how I turn a load of plastic bags

and bin liners into a dress.

And here is my friend Jo wearing the dress.

-Do you like it?

-Does it look good?

It looks fantastic.

Adnan used 250 orange bags and 60 bin bags to make his fabulous dress,

and it's perfect inspiration for how we can help Abi.

Are you ready to find out what we're going to do with

-all of your plastic bags?

-Yes.

We're going to make a plastic bag belt.

That sounds awesome.

OK, I'm going to show you how we do it.

The first thing we need to do is to get some old card like this.

You might get it from an old cardboard box

or something like that.

Cut it into a long strip like this that might look good

-as sort of as a half belt, demi-belt thing.

-Yeah.

Cut off the corners to add a little flare.

Beautiful.

Now, the next thing we need to do is we need to put some holes

all the way down the edges.

To make our holes, we're going to use a hole punch, like this.

-And then you have to do the other side, as well.

-OK.

And, while you're doing that, I'm going to go onto the next part,

which is getting our plastic bags that you've collected.

One of Adnan's top tips is to make sure

you've got enough plastic bags, and we need to cut them into strips.

Now, these strips are going to come out a bit like this,

and that's what we're going to use to thread into the holes.

Got that, Abi?

'Just lay a bag out and cut down its length.'

'Your strips should be roughly two centimetres wide.'

As you can see, I've cut lots and lots of strips here.

What we're going to do is we're going to use a big plastic needle,

like this, and we need to thread our plastic bag strips through it.

Once we've threaded our needle, you can do any kind of stitching

in these holes, but I'm going to show you a few different styles.

The first one - the needle goes through the hole.

Pull it all the way through to the end...

and then we are going around the outside,

under, and through that hole again.

That's it. So it looks like it just goes round and round.

How often do you go shopping, Abi?

Probably every weekend.

-Every weekend?

-Yeah.

And do you buy things every time, or do you sometimes just go to look?

Erm, I buy things every time. Clothes mainly.

-Are you going to wear your new belt, too?

-Of course.

-OK.

What we need to do now is to cut the excess bits off...

and stick them down.

-Starting to look good, yeah?

-Yeah.

OK, next we're going to choose another colour.

-What colour would you like?

-Blue.

Blue? OK. Blue next.

Thread it exactly as we did before.

Instead of going round the outside this time,

-let's go across the middle.

-OK.

Now, when you have run out of plastic bag like this,

all you need to do is cut it,

put some sticky tape there,

stick it down,

get another strip of blue,

then you carry on where you left off.

So, you would have gone through there.

-Have you got a brother?

-Yes.

Is he doing any cool things?

Yeah, he's actually doing a marathon in a couple of days.

-Is he?

-Yeah.

-That's cool. Are you going to go and see him?

-No.

-Why not?

-I'm going shopping with my friend.

Shopping, of course. You're going shopping?!

-Yeah.

-He understands, yeah?

-Yeah, I think.

Sorry, bruv.

We're sewing our colours diagonally,

but have fun coming up with your own patterns.

So, now that we have our belt, it's time to make the ties

for the end and we use these three holes that we made on each end.

So, you take those three, and I'm going to take a blue one,

an orange and a yellow.

Take your strands and fasten three of them

through the holes at each end of your belt.

So, now all we need to do is to plait these three strands that we have,

and they're going to make a beautiful little tie for us.

Take one of the outside strands into the middle.

Then take the other outside strand and also put it into the middle.

Now you have a new set of outside strands.

Keep going and this makes a plait.

So, once you've plaited your ties, all you need to do

is tie a knot in the end, chop this end off...

So, there you have it - a plastic bag belt.

Do you want to try it on?

Put that around your waist.

And tie it off here.

-Boom. What do you think?

-It's amazing. I love it!

Why don't you give it a go?

To make a plastic bag belt, here's what you have to do.

Stage one - measure out your card and cut it out.

Stage two - get a hole punch and punch along the edge of your card.

Stage three - take your plastic bags and cut them into strips.

Stage four - using a needle, weave your bag thread through the holes.

Stage five - you can experiment with colours

and patterns to create your own design.

Stage six - plait three strips of plastic bag together

to make the belt ties.

Tidy up the ends by tying a knot.

Still to come - we help a graffiti artist

breathe new life into a skate park.

And we show you how to make a cool easel out of old lolly sticks.

But first, Totally Famous.

Introducing Bridget Riley,

totally famous for making us see art in a very different way.

Bridget Riley became famous in the 1960s, when she developed

a new style of painting called optical art, or "op art".

Here she used black and white patterns

and shapes to play tricks on our eyes.

Whoa! Feeling sick yet?

The public loved it.

Op art was cool, and Bridget Riley became Great Britain's

number one art celebrity.

Soon, her eye-popping patterns started appearing

on everything from furnishings to fashion.

But this made Bridget very angry.

She felt her patterns had been pinched and threatened to sue.

So, a law was passed to protect her designs.

She then continued pushing the boundaries of op art,

experimenting with colour and filling whole rooms with her work.

She even decorated a hospital with a pattern

designed to relax the patients.

Today, her paintings are shown all over the world.

So, look out for the totally talented

and amazingly eye-popping Bridget Riley.

Today, we're going to make a lollipop stick easel.

Which you can use as a place setting for your parties.

First, you get four lolly sticks,

but now you only need two of them

and you get one down, diagonally, and then you get the other one

and put it just touching each other on that bit.

Then you glue the top there.

And then you just stick it on and hold it down and wait for it to dry.

You need the third lolly stick on its side

pointing upwards, like this, so you can put the paper on it.

It's made an A shape.

Now we leave the glue to dry.

The next thing you need to do is you need to get your fourth

lolly stick and bend it a tiny, tiny bit.

So, snap it, not so it breaks off, but just like this.

Put some glue just at the top of the back of the A, just like that.

And, finally, you get the bend of your lolly stick

and stick it where you've put the glue.

And then you just leave it to dry.

You need to eat a lot of lollies to make this.

What's your favourite flavour lolly, then?

I quite like strawberry lolly.

What's your favourite flavour?

Mango and lemon.

I wish I said mango now.

They're dry now, let's paint them.

I'm going to paint mine red, cos my favourite lolly is strawberry.

I'm going to paint mine green,

because my favourite colour's green.

(Did I get paint on my shirt?)

I've finished. Now let's leave it to dry.

Now our easels are dry, all we have to do is

write our names on a piece of card.

There you have it - your very own lollipop stick easel.

All ready for your party.

I like how you've written your name.

The best part about making a lollipop stick easel

is that you can really impress your guests at a party.

What can you make from a bin bag full of rubbish?

Just have a look at this.

Ooh! What are you going to do with this lot?

Well, I'm going to show you

how to make something really cool for your room.

'You'll need a couple of crisp tubes...

'four pennies,

'a wooden stirrer,

'a glue stick,

'some old wool or string,

'a piece of old card,

'scissors, tape,

'a bit of old newspaper,

'and some paint.'

We are going to make a nodding dog!

No way, you're having a laugh.

-You're going to make that out of this?

-Yeah, man.

-With this rubbish?

-Yeah, it's so simple.

It's amazing. OK, let's do it.

So, first of all, grab yourself a couple of old crisps containers.

One in tact, one cut in half.

Next thing you need to do is cut four holes in one side...

-All right.

-..of the crisps container

and this is going to be for where our legs go.

You can just use a pencil to kind of punch it through.

A pencil's quite good, cos it's circular so it just keeps that...

Yeah, that's working, I think I'm through.

For the legs all you need to do is get some rolled up newspaper,

roll it into a tube and then just stick it with sticky tape.

Like these.

Oh!

I did it already, I'm thinking ahead, you see?

You're all prepared, you are.

'Just push the rolled newspaper into the holes

'and your nodding dog's body will be ready to stand.'

So, obviously, we want some detail on our dog,

we want to give it some good facial features.

'So, on an old piece of cardboard,

'maybe you've got a cereal box, you're going to draw your features.

'My dog will have pointy ears, round eyes,

'a big smile and, of course, four paws.

'But feel free to come up with your own design -

'the options are endless.'

So, you just cut all those out

and cos this guy takes a bit of time,

I'm going to show you what they look like when they're cut out.

So, you've got your four paws, your mouth,

your eyes and your two spiky ears.

-Once you've got all those cut out...

-Yeah?

..what you're going to do is paint everything.

So, you want to paint your body with your legs

-and you want to paint your head...

-OK, cool.

Then, once it's dry, it'll look something like this.

I've got my four paws already stuck on there.

And, for the face, I've got my eyes already stuck on, and the ears.

So, we've got the mouth here,

and I've done a bit more detail with the mouth.

Black marker pen, got his little teeth in there.

-Teeth in.

-Missing a nose.

-Shall we get that on there?

Let's get that on there, you go for it.

-Just glue that up.

-Yeah.

Just stick the mouth to it. Simple.

-That's good.

-It's lovely.

So, how do we get our little head-bobbing going on?

This is the business, this is what makes it,

it's that, it's the whole...

HE BEATBOXES

So, you need to get yourself an old wooden stirrer.

-OK.

-Four pennies, two on either end of the stick,

and then I've just attached them with some sticky tape.

-All right.

-So they're nice and secure.

In the middle of the stick, I've just tied some old wool.

A double knot so it stays secure.

Just stick it under here in between the two ears,

so it's nice and central.

Get your body, and feed these pennies

-underneath here like this, yeah.

-Yeah.

And then, with your string, you're just pulling it taut,

stick this down with sticky tape here...

and then you've got your nodding mechanism.

-Nice, well done.

-It's really simple, isn't it?

It is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

Some finishing touches, like a collar and spots,

really make him look great.

And if dogs aren't your bobbing pet of choice,

you can easily modify the design to make a cat or a mouse.

Well, at least we've now got something to do

with all these crisp containers.

I know. And to think we throw away

over 3 million tonnes of food packaging every year

when we could be making things like that.

That's a pretty scary number of nodding dogs!

I knew a dog once - he really stank.

How did you stop him smelling?

I got him to hold his nose.

THEY LAUGH

DOG HOWLS

It wasn't that bad.

Michelle, there you are.

-What time do you call this?

-I've been looking for you.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-So, what are we doing here?

Basically, I'm just covering this wall in some old white paint

cos we're going to create something really, really special.

We're going to bring a whole new lease of life to this old skate park

and there's a guy who's absolutely wicked who'll help us do it.

But, because you arrived late, you can take that.

Here's the rest of the paint, and there's still a bit

to finish over there, so do you want to crack on?

-Hey Squirl, you all right?

-Hello, how's it going?

-Good, yeah not bad.

-All right, guys?

-All right, mate.

-I've done the whole wall.

-Wicked.

-It's finished.

-Already.

So, Squirl, this is our space that we want to transform.

Have you got any ideas how we can jazz it up

and make it look a lot better?

Well, it's quite a sort of old, gnarly, old place,

so I think we need to really brighten it up,

get some characters in there,

make them really, really lively, make it a bit more friendly in here.

Sounds great. Can we get involved? Can we help you out at all?

Sure, yeah, there's loads of stuff that you can do.

-Brilliant, go team. Well, let's get cracking then.

-Wicked.

The first thing I need to do

when I get to the wall is start sketching out using the spray paint

and getting an outline on everything.

Then I go in and start putting in block colour

in the sketch lines that I've done, start filling in loads

and loads of different colours,

not too similar ones next to each other.

It's not easy, it's a big old wall.

This is looking really good, I'm loving the colour.

I'd quite like something this on my bedroom wall, actually.

-How's it going, Michelle?

-Good, yeah.

It's amazing how it goes from a small design on a piece of paper

to this massive piece on the wall.

What's this stage we're doing here?

Just getting loads of highlights and lowlights into it,

some shadows and depth,

making the characters a bit more curved so they're not so flat.

So, this is LJ.

LJ, is it fair to say that you kind of run this place?

-Yeah.

-So what kind of things do people get up to here?

We get people rollerblading, skateboarding, scooters, BMXs -

any sort of extreme sport, really.

Well, as you can see, we've kind of taken over a bit

and what do you think of what the guys are doing so far?

I'm really enjoying it. I like the colours,

it's nice and vibrant and makes the park look more alive.

-So we've got thumbs up from LJ?

-Yeah.

-I'm going to crack on back to work. See you later, mate.

-See you.

It's all about the finishing touches,

getting the really fine detail in at the end.

You can't just leave half done, so you need to make sure those

last bits are really, really sharp, cos that's what makes the piece.

So, there you go - an old skate park given a new lease of life.

Yeah, I feel good after doing that.

We've brightened the place up a bit.

Awesome. Nice work.

Yep, we'll see you next time on Totally Rubbish.

So, why don't you have a go at making a scary jumping spider...

..weaving a plastic bag belt...

..building a lollipop stick easel...

..or putting together your very own nodding dog.

And start collecting your old takeaway cups...

..your leftover cardboard...

..and get hold of an unwanted tie for next time on Totally Rubbish.

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