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delia creates

White…Sintra Bowls

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Is there anything lovlier or more elegant than white?

I love this color.

Today I am going to share how to make white Sintra dishes.
What is Sintra you say?
It consists of two pieces of a PVC type plastic sandwiching a sturdy foam.
It is also often called foam board.
It is bendable, moldable, and you can cut it like you would wood.
You can purchase some here or at art supply stores.
I do not know of any of the standard craft stores that carry it, but you can always ask. You will likely have better luck with a professional art shop or try your university campus bookstore {which sells art supplies}, like I did.

EDITED TO ADD A WARNING: I would like to express my thanks to some informative readers who prompted me to research PVC plastic. I found that PVC is not an ideal plastic for food grade dishes. There is some controversy about the mal effects the chemicls PVC can release into the atmostphere and into our bodies. I feel bad for misleading anyone. I am not sure what type of PVC plastic Sintra is and how harmful Sintra is in particular, or if it is at all. I wasn’t able to find anything definitive on that subject {if you find hard facts about it I would love to hear about it}.

I personally, will still likely use them for non- liquid foods, but if you do so, please be mindful of the risk. You can also make these as wrapped candy dishes, to hold office supplies, or other non-food items.

I could only find black and white.
But if you order online they come in almost every color of the rainbow!
I made some bowls last year as an experiment.
Read the full “experimental” tutorial here.
This time I decided to cut the the plastic down into smaller pieces,
 which made the process much easier.
BUT…The pictures you see here are for the larger un-cut pieces of Sintra.
Let’s get started:
It is a very simple process of just 3 steps:
1. Boil water in a large pot.
2. Submerge the plastic into the boiling water until it gets flexible and almost flimsy feeling.
3. Pull out with tongs and mold into your desired shape.
It cools and hardens very quickly, so move quickly. You may want to begin with using oven mitts to protect your hands but it cools so fast that you don’t need to after the first few seconds.
If you don’t get the shape you want the first time, just repeat steps 2 and 3 until it looks how you like.
Be careful to not over do it {repeating process more than 10 times or so}. It eventually starts to crack.
I played it safe and just made curvy little bowls. You can get gutsier, but be mindful of the risk of cracking and breaking the plastic.
One extra caution: I don’t pretend to have authority on the subject, but if I were you, I would only hand wash these dishes, and not put piping hot foods inside them.
They are mostly decorative serving bowls.
And that’s it! Very simple.
And they sure are pretty…
 And curvy. Va va voom. 🙂
And for this one piece of Sintra that cost about 65 cents on sale, I got three petite serving bowls with an eclectic flair.

 

Not too shabby…and a fun little afternoon project.

It would be a great craft for older kids/tweens as well, to give them something fun to do while school is out this summer.

Be sure to check out Kojodesigns for this beautiful necklace…
I personally can’t wait to see the tutorial.

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Comments

  1. These bowls are really cute! But, please be careful using them for food. The dunk into the bowling water may cause the chemicals in the PVC plastic to leach out.

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  11. Oh shoot I love this idea… I wish they could be used for food. You would think they could leave those chemicals out since they do in the new food-grade pvc… Great idea though

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  13. What a super cool and fun idea! I am going to have my girls help me this when they get out of school. These will be perfect for the Hawaiian luau we are going to have!

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  14. These are so pretty.

    I don't actually know the hard facts about PVC, but maybe you could use some sort of finish on them to make them more food safe? I have also read that there shouldn't be much of a risk as long as the stuff in the bowl is not hot. While toxins may be released in the process of forming the bowls, I'm under the impression that it is only when hot. Also

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