I love bicycles as art.  
Mike and I’s first piece of art was a poster of bicycle. 
It’s hung in many homes; 
living rooms, a bathroom and now in our kitchen.
I found this bike at a thrift store last Friday.
 It was small, old, rusty, and the seat was torn to shreds
and the color of the wheels remind me of my car!
 It was exactly what I was looking for 
and for the exact price I was hoping for – 5 dollars!
I “hid” it in my garage with our other bikes 
over the weekend hopping Mike wouldn’t notice and 
I wouldn’t have to explain why I bought it.
 Saturday morning he asked,
“Why is there a little girl’s bike in our garage?”
I didn’t want to say, 
“I am going to use it for a pot rack and a mobile that I saw on line;
see how cool they are?”
So I said, “I bought it for parts.” 
He was a trooper and didn’t ask any more questions.
Thank you, Sweety.
Monday morning, I got to work.. 
I looked up on youtube “How to take off a bike wheel.”
I LOVE youtube.  I learned that you have to disconnect the brakes
first then turn the nuts “counter clockwise.”  Knowledge is power.
The only problem I had was with the little safety screw thingy above.
The screw wouldn’t budge.  I had to cut it off with a hack saw.
Once I had both wheels off, I took one to the store for parts
which came in a little under 6 dollars.
 Then I cleaned up the wheels a little with soap, water and sand paper;
they were pretty rusty. Then I taped up and painted the inside rims
with rustoleum primer (to stop the rusting) then metallic paint,
which I had on hand from other projects.  🙂
I saved the smallest gear to hang up my back wheel;
I thought it was cute and I needed something to fill up the big hole.
I had the ceiling hook on hand, too.  It matches, too. 🙂
This nut from the bike was big enough not to slip through the gear hole.
I took some picture wire (from other projects) and tied on 
with an overhand knot to secure it,
 then wrapped the end of the wire around and 
pulled it through the gear and back wheel.

I made similar loop/knot on the other end to hang on the hook.
I dug through my school supplies and found this world map.
Pretty isn’t it.  It’s from 1975.
So old that I felt guilty using it for school 
way back when the kids were little. 
I googled “How to make paper airplanes” and found diagrams on this site.
I cut up my map and made it into 8 paper air planes.
I tried to make each one a little different.
I “laminated” my map with clear contact paper 
way back when.. so they were nice and thick.
I stapled in a small strip of map to make a loop to hang them from,
 then hung them from my back wheel.
 Isn’t it great?  That space looked so naked before.
 On to the Pot Rack:

 These are the parts I bought earlier.. 
(all 3/8″ – same as the bolt from my bike)
a wood to metal screw, couplings, hex nuts, jam nuts,
 washers (I only used one), 
and a 10 inch carriage bolt that ended up being too long,
so I switched it out for a 6 inch one later.
 I really appreciated the instructions from the link above.. 
but felt like I needed more pictures, so I took some.
I filled up the medal side of the wood to medal with nuts
and topped it off with a washer,
 leaving just enough threads for the coupling to screw halfway up.
The jam nuts are what keeps everything from unscrewing.
When you tighten them against the other nuts, they lock in place.
 I found a joist in my ceiling with my stud finder,
 drilled a small hole through, then I used my wrench 
to screw the wood to medal screw into my joist.
I always wondered how you were supposed to screw those
things in without missing up the threads.
 I tightened all the bolts together 
and I had a secure place to hang my pot rack.
 The threads on my bike wheel bolt were tighter than the threads
on my carriage bold so I was unable to keep my ball bearings and cone. 🙁
I exchanged my 10″ carriage bolt for a 6″ one.
filled it up with nuts and the extra coupling.
The guy from the web site above used a bunch of washers.
The nuts were more economical and lock nicly.
I left enough room to screw into the coupling
and a little room near the wheel so I could 
get to the tightening ridge under the head of the bolt, and
so I it would be a little loose for turning and reaching my pots.
I screwed it into my coupling and tightened all the nuts.
Next I got out these $9.00 shower curtain hooks I found at Target.
They were much cheeper than any pot rack, or “s” hooks I could find.
  And ta-da.. they match my cast iron pots and pans..
I like it..
Much easier access than in my crowded cabinet,
much cheaper than any other solution I could find
(just under twenty bucks), fun and a little artsy,
and my pans can air dry without getting rusty.
Hope Mike lets me leave them up.
Love,
Jenny