Making art from JUNK…

Mining others’ garbage for resources

A professional development initiative by Ian Griffiths, August 2009-June 2010

Four old metal garden chairs were rescued from the garbage…

This is the painted seat for one of them.

Sunflower chair

Four metal “garden”chairs were found in the garbage in PointeClaire. After a Tremcladpaint job, 2 pieces of¼” plywood were primed and painted using acrylics, then coated with varnish. They were then attached to the metal chair with 4 small bolts each.

Design and paint jobBy Ian Griffiths

I plucked 3 vintage 1950’s chrome kitchen chairs from the curbside garbage in Pointe Claire. The old blue and white vinyl seats were stripped and then new red vinyl and custom-made white “piping” werestretched on the cushioned plywood forms.

Th

The Red Vinyl Chair Good as new!

This great chair was found in the

garbage near Monkland blvd.

Line drawing by Sam Pearl, Pre-U

Drawings by senior students of some “rescued” chairs.

Pattern designed by Ian Griffithsfor a laminated corrugated cardboard “lounger”(size 3’ X 5’2”)

THE NAPSTER

“The Napster” corrugated lounger. I started in September ‘09 collecting boxes and stripping them down (removing tape, flattening and organizing by size). I then began gluing layers of boxes together in a rectangular shape that was more than big enough for the design I had made on brown paper. After I had about 2.5” laminated and thoroughly dried, I traced the pattern and cut out the shape with a jig saw. After more than 6 gallons of bondfast glue and probably 120 layers of cardboard I have the “beast” pictured. I modified my original design by cutting holes out of it to lessen the weight and to give the work a lighter, more aesthetic look. It is about 18” wide.

Going to the “Box Mine”….

…PAYDIRT!Didn’t have to “dig”too far to find somegreat resources for the corrugatedcardboard furniture!

Raw materials mostly from LCC’s recycling bins.

Organizing flattened boxes by size (tape etc has been removed to facilitate gluing).

A big roller is best for applying glue. One point….make sure you use a lot of glue.

Heavy slate provides even pressure

A section (2” thick) of laminated cardboard is ready for cutting. The pattern is carefully traced onto the boards to maximize use. The cut out area between the two will be used for something.

Sections are cut with a jig saw. Like pieces of bread, they will be laminated to make a “loaf” about 22” wide.

The first two cut out units….

I soon realized that an 18” slab of laminated cardboard would weigh a TON,so I changed the design by cutting out holes like in airplane construction.

…being weighed down as they are glued.

It required about 5 gallons of white glue to laminate the whole project.

Almost finished…June 7,2010

I cut out the holes when it became apparent that the chair would weigh too much. Also, from an aesthetic point it looks more interesting.

All it needs nowIs to be sanded.A dusty job!

A cool example from the internet

An example below from the internet…

This is my work using corrugated cardboard.Size about 16 X 22”.

COMPUTERS gone BAD!!!

THEY CAN BE REFORMED!!!!

A brigh

t idea?

I picked up more than 300 used CD’s and have made a few items. Here is the sunflowerlamp, simple socket set-up etc. I had also made a hanging shade from 7 discs but I found it unsatisfying.

“Giggies” from re-cycled discs.

Above: “Giggy” desk buddies Above: “Giggy” wall-eyes

“Giggy” sunflower

Sunflower Mirror ball sculpture

Large tomato sauce and pre-cut vegetables cans were collected from the school’s kitchen recycle bins to make this 3 foot square sculpture.

The TOASTER Series

A classic toaster from my childhood. I just about lived off of toast and tea from the age of ten onward.

The Corrugated Toaster Series

Based on my childhood toaster the Morphy-Richards Model TA/1B c. 1949

Scrap wood was used to make these life-sized versions.

I wired an LED light to a 9-volt battery with a switch to add interest.

As the saying goes….. “You are what you eat”.

Above….self-portrait on white pine (pain blanc) isin consideration of my life-long love of TOAST.

Go to www.toastthis.ca (not up yet)for more of my comfort food stuff!

Next year… I am going to offer a carving club one day after school (3 or 4 students ONLY). I bought 4 dremel-type tools at a great price. Some students have indicated interest in carving, so I will try to get this going. They will sculpt small objects with much the same approach that I have taken on my wood toasters.