UPDATE Dear Anthropologie,
Dear Anthropologie,
Hello there! You might know me as the crazy guy who stands in the middle of your stores watching your talented set designers put up all those elaborate displays. Just watching, awing, wondering how these artists take everyday materials—like these water and soda bottles—and makes plastic flowers out of them.
You might also know me as the persistent guy who keeps trying to buy your displays. Remember the animals made out of Chinese food takeout chopsticks I kept bidding on (even though I was told they were and will never be on sale?) Or the snowy, wintery “terrariums” that I also begged to buy? Yes, I am that guy trying to buy one dozen of these water bottle flowers from your Union Square store on Friday…
Still don’t remember? I’m also that guy who went to the Duane Reade drugstore by the Rockefeller Center store, bought a pair of scissors, fished out a soda bottle from the trash and stood in your store trying to recreate one of these fantastic upcycling ideas. Sure, shoppers stopped and stared. Maybe a few of you thought “is this the new guy who’s working here?” Still, I made it my mission to teach myself and create a tutorial on this ingenius idea.
Anyway, I just wanted to drop a line and say hello and tell you the latest plastic flower upcycling window creations are brilliant. Just please: post a tutorial on making them so we can all fish out discarded bottles just like you and create something amazing from trash.
Yours,
Danny Seo
The kind folks at Anthropologie (and a few of you, too!) forwarded me their February newsletter that outlines the four steps to make the plastic water bottle flowers. I love the fact they are calling out the fact in the newsletter that there are billions of these bottles used every year and discarded into our landfills.
Score, Cut, Bend and Paint. That’s it!
Ditto to the letter above. Their displays are phenomenal and I hear they just get stored in some warehouse… so sad because they could live on in someone’s home!
glad to hear I’m not the only one lusting after creative store displays. although I don’t have the guts to ask for them (or the space to store them!), I must pine away for them from afar.
Have you seen the show on Sundance Channel called “Man Shops Globe”? It is about a buyer for Anthropologie and the show follows him on his quest to find new and interesting things for the store. Some of the things he finds, I believe, are often store displays or inspiration for them. I think you can watch full episodes on the Sundance site. The show combines (nearly) everything I love – travel, flea markets and Anthropologie!
These flowers truly are amazing!!!! I agree with you…I go into my local anthropologie just to look at everything!!!! I never buy anything because the store is too expensive for me!!! But the displays are excellent!!!!
I got an email from Anthropologie about how they make these flowers. It doesn’t go into much detail, but you basically score the bottle with an exacto knife all the way around a few inches below the neck. Then cut petals with scissors, bend the petals back a bit, and paint (it doesn’t say what kind of paint is used, but it looks like spray paint to me).
I would to know where to access this newsletter. I went to the Anthropologie site but see no link to a newsletter. I also emailed them, but have not received an answer as of yet. If you have a link, please send it my way. Love the ideas… as well as the rock photo holder. I am always on the lookout for ideas that would interest young teens, especially boys as I work at a camp in the summer.
thanks again
Umm… you might want to see this: a vase made out of an old bottle, and it’s amazingly gorgeous !
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/how-to/how-to-make-a-vase-out-of-a-plastic-bottle-107448
love store displays and windows too….. i have a store display is a a huge problem/challenge all the time…
the bottle group looks great…
glad i found you..
ann
What sort of paint do you think they use on the plastic bottles?
thanks for the admiration! I’m the display artist in the Union Square store, and the girl in the newsletter. We used regular ol’ spray paint.
No way! I googled this thinking that no one would have anything on how to make the bottles and there you were!!! My daughter and I saw these last weekend in our Anthropologie, and she thought I was nuts to stand there taking a ton of pics with my phone. We’re planning on making them for her room. Thank you, THANK YOU for being the crazy guy for the rest of us!!
Hilarious letter! And thanks for sharing the bottle technique!