This site was looking a bit neglected so I thought I’d post one of the ways I’m passing the time while stationary in West Michigan for the winter. While I sold off my hobby Jeeps in preparation for our big trip I still have all my tools which includes a welder. For years I’ve wanted to try some “junkyard art”, making new things out of the various bits and pieces of people’s lives that end up at the scrapyard.
With no other hobbies going on, and available evenings where I’m tired of being online and looking at screens all day I finally had the chance to give this a try. I visited the local recycling center and pawed through the various piles in search of interesting shapes. I came home with roughly a 150 lb “sculpture starting kit” and began looking for something to come out of it. Dumpster the Junkyard Zombie Cat was the first to emerge and then Gearhead van Helsing (the misinformed vampire cat killer) arrived to be shocked at the unexpected discovery of a zombie cat.
I’ve really enjoyed building these. The process is probably the most purely creative thing I’ve done. It’s not logical, sequenced, or based on many restrictions or requirements (other than size & weight of the materials I can accomodate with my garage, tools, and ability). When it comes time to attach two things together there’s no website or manual that I can reference for how to position them long enough to get a weld in place - it’s all up to me to figure it out based on the items I have on hand.
Both of these pieces emerged organically with no preconceived notions. It’s kind of fun to answer the “what are you building?” questions with “don’t know yet!”
I have no idea what will become of these when it’s time to get back on the road, but that’s really not the point. Worst case they’ll go back to the scrapyard from whence they came, having served the purpose of keeping my creative juices flowing over the cold winter.
Incredible! How long did you have to peruse the junk to find the right pieces?
Hey Ryan - the process was more “collect a bunch of interesting shapes” and then see what could be made of them than having an idea and looking for junk pieces to fit.
The cat started with the saddle that just looked like a cat face, then realizing the wheel I had bought could be the rounded back of an angered cat..and it took off from there.
Gearhead started with realizing how well the smaller gears fit inside the bigger and could be eyes.