Motorcycles from Watch Parts

Motorcycles from Watch Parts

If you were going to throw away your old watch and add to the metal pollution, wait a second!
Take a look at what digital curators like Dmitriy Khristenkho of Ukraine and Dan Tanenbaum of
Canada are doing to stop these old watch parts from landing in the garbage can. Turning junk into spectacular mini bike sculptures, it’s a delight to see such intricate and detailed work of art.

BEFORE……

 AFTER….

These miniatures actually take a lot of time to be built as opposed to their size. Each part has to be shaped using grindstone to get perfect shape and size and then each component is painstakingly glued by hand to finish the masterpiece. It roughly takes about 50 hours to complete one model. Phew! So tiny but it sure is a hell lot of work! Since the work involved is a lot so are the returns, as each piece costs up to 700 pounds.

The makers of these motorcycles say that the most important part is to put together the two wheels, handle bars and petrol tank and the rest is pretty much an expression of one’s imagination. Of course sometimes the clients also ask for custom makes.

While most parts are those rescued from scrapheaps, some of the components on these motorcycles are parts from Vintage watches. Many people request to convert their ancestral watches into model bikes to immortalise their worth in an artistic way.

Super cool and incredible aren’t they??? Well next time don’t give away or throw your old watch. Just break it, shape it, stick it and make your own custom model bike. It’s not easy to make but for sure is an amazing art.

Read more: http://www.funonthenet.in/articles/motorcycles-watch-parts.html#ixzz272NVAeKy

Talk about having patience and time on your hands!

Read the story and see 19 more images here:  Upcycling… Wood Chips! – gubs posterous

Recycling vs. Upcycling: What is the difference?

FEBRUARY 17, 2010 BY T. CAINE 20 COMMENTS

“Over the last decade the term “Upcycling” has been coined and worked into the discourse of sustainability efforts. It appeared in William McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle. It has yet to earn itself mainstream popularity, but its necessity as a goal for how we should be progressing makes its definition important. Like so many things in sustainability, I come across many enthusiasts who are trying to promote the practice but may be passing around an incorrect meaning.”

Upcycling: A process that can be repeated in perpetuity of returning materials back to a pliable, usable form without degradation to their latent value—moving resources back up the supply chain.

My husband is a strange guy. He gets ideas in his head and will not rest until his dreams are brought to fruition. The latest thing is gathering wood pallets to make garden boxes for our backyard. He works in an industrial section of town so many places put pallets out at the curb each day for people to take. He can have his choice of wood!

The soil at our house is thin and full of shale chunks. We have tried growing things the last two years but nothing ever does very good. This year we decided to make some garden boxes and fill them up with dirt and compost and grow things like beets, radishes, tomatoes, green peppers, and carrots. At the beginning, Greg said that he didn’t know if we’d be able to do it this year because wood cost so much; this is when my “smart wife” brain kicked into gear and I suggested using the wood from discarded pallets to build them. It is just pine, after all!

So, now I have a stack of pallets on my deck, waiting to be pulled apart. This must be done carefully, as pallets are never built to be taken apart and the wood will split quite easily if you try to just pull out the nails. Also you must be careful, if you are using the wood for something like growing food or for in your house, that there were no chemicals used in treating them or any that spilled from its cargo. Otherwise, you’re good to go.

I’ll keep you all in the loop as to how the boxes go.

In the meantime, read this exciting website that we found that has lots of interesting ideas on things to make with wood pallets. My favourite one is the Pallet Crib. It actually turned out really well, but now I have some convincing to do that we should NOT build our next baby one!!

yes, a baby slept here. I am assuming it was made with saftey in mind.

Related articles

• Rustic, Modern, Reclaimed & Free: 13 DIY Pallet Projects (webecoist.com)
• DIY Scrap Wood Pallet Wall Mom and Her Drill (apartmenttherapy.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Don’t you just love it when the dots connect!

• Last night, Ottawa artist, Violetta Borisonik, was featured on CTV Ottawa‘s regional contact.  Violetta’s art reflects the vibrant colours of La Boca Barrio in her hometown, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• This morning, there was a “WANTED” posting waiting in the moderators queue of FullCircles Ottawa requesting left over paint for a basement painting project.
• Got me thinking about La Boca.  And when I did just a little research, look what I found.  La Boca gets its character from leftover shipbuilding materials…  paint, building materials, etc.

Images from the La Boca Barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina

During the 19th century, a heavy immigration of Italians, mainly Genovese began populating the Boca area. It is said that many could not afford paint and building materials, so they often bartered with the sailors and shipping industry for their leftover boat supplies. La Boca was and is known for its haphazard construction style and brightly colored buildings.

So how about it, freecyclers?  Got any used paint sitting around at your place?  Why not give it some life?  Someone can use it!  Apparently the average North American has more than 1 gallon of leftover paint sitting around the house.

Related articles

• La Boca (barnesbury.wordpress.com)

Artist, Alexis Williams, has been commissioned by the Ottawa Art Gallery to construct an edible structure made from old phone books.   The phone books will be inoculated with fungi

Alexis Williams wwff

A most unusual freecycling WANTED posting…  Artist, Alexis Williams,
is collecting old phone books.

Here’s what she says on her website:

"I have been commissioned to use unwanted phone books to build living sculptures that will grow gourmet mushrooms. The project is part of a community garden project and you are invited to take part.

To build these sculptures we need to collect as many unwanted phone books and litre glass jars as we can. Groups that collect and donate phonebooks and one litre jars to the project will win prizes and opportunities to participate and learn more."