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| In Memoriam Nip-orium wreath. |
No, this post isn't about textiles, but celebrates my city deciding to ban the sale of "nip" bottles, those 50ml or 100ml plastic containers of alcohol commonly known as nips. As neighboring towns were, until recently, "dry," those folks came over the border to Newton to buy their booze.
Nip litter is a real problem during community clean-ups of parks and conservation land, when volunteers find dozens of these non-biodegradable things, which cannot be recycled using the city's current system. So, I helped spear-head a drive to convince the alcohol licensing commission to ban the sale of nips. For once, success!
The wreath, since ancient times, has been a symbol of victory, so I decided to make a celebratory wreath. No problem finding the raw materials - nips are everywhere.
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| Dry fit of nip bottles and caps. |
I used a corrugated cardboard "donut" as the base - outside dimension is 13", inside hole is 4". First, I painted the base with some leftover red paint. Also punched a hole for hanging.
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| Painted cardboard "donut." |
To aid in even radial placement, I first used my trusty glue gun to attach bottles at the "compass" points. Next, I infilled each quadrant, and, lastly, glued the small nip caps along the outer edge.
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| Bottles at four "compass" points. |
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| Add bottles evenly spaced between compass points. |
The completed wreath was placed in a kiosk on a converted rail trail pathway, from which most of the bottles were recovered, with an explanatory note. (The title "In Memoriam Nip-orium" was suggested by a clever member of our local area council.) If only the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would ban these, or add them to our bottle deposit system.
