The Adlington Post

. Another tin can robot....named Loata. Made from items found in the trash, on the streert, beach & charity shops.Her earrings detach & can be worn, & her antenna lights up. SOLD See more of my recycled and upcycled works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This week is annual inorganic rubbish collection time in my area. People can put out almost any rubbish which is too large to go into their weekly bin. I have had great fun driving round in my van picking stuff out for use in recycled artworks. There is lots of stuff to look at and make selections from. There are some things I am looking for for projects (flip-flops & CD’s), otherwise my rule-of-thumb is “what in this pile has sculptural qualities?” - this takes an imaginative ‘eye’ - & hopefully I am getting better at it. Ideal finds include anything with “kiwina-kitsch” connotations - unfortunately these are hard to come by, tho I did find this little folk-art kiwi.

Working with these flowers cut from egg cartons found in dumpsters is good fun. I have used the back of real-estate signs as the background for these pieces - the flowers are attached with screws. See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This fish-hook is about 2 ft high & is cut out a piece of copper sheet from a hot-water cylinder I found in the kerbside collection. I have painted it black & am thinking of bronzing or gilding it??? In Maori mythology the super-human trickster Maui fished up the North Island from the sea. The traditional names for this island group commemmorate this feat: The North Island is Te Ikaroa-a-Maui (“The Long Fish of Maui”). The South Island is Te Waka-a-Maui (“The Canoe of Maui”). Stewart Island in the far south is the legendary anchor of our hero’s canoe: Te Punga-a-Maui, while the Mahia Peninsula in the east is identified as Maui’s fish-hook: Te Matau-a-Maui. SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

I I made this motorcycle from beer bottle pull-tabs found in the trash a short while ago. Yesterday, Blake, the 9 year-old boy from next door, came to visit - he loves to help me unload the van & see what I have found in my wanderings....after we unloaded my haul, he asked if he could make something from my pull-tab collection; & in 5 minutes he had sellotaped this figure together! - I think it’s fantastic..he really has a gift for assemblage - another budding bricoleur!! See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

I found these bicycle parts in a dumpster recently. The wires are the brake cables - I am not sure whether to leave them on or cut them off? I kind of like them. A possible title for this piece is “No Bull” - references to Picasso’s original sculpture & Magritte’s “This is not a pipe” being intentional. Otherwise it could be a “Recyclabull”? See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This robot has an old metal toaster for a body, which I found in a skip. His antennae is a toy helicopter. Attached to the back of his head is a toy telephone which works! - When you press the buttons it either beeps or a metallic voice says “Hello....Leave a message at the sound of the beep...Goodbye”. SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com ____________________________________________

These plastic fish are soy sauce bottles which I found locally in the trash. I have filled them with electric-green beads. See more of my trashion pieces as well as recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This lei (Polynesian necklace) is over 5ft (nearly 2M) long & is made from flowers cut from egg cartons threaded on thick fishing line which I found on Castlecliff beach in Wanganui. The restaurants here in Browns Bay throw heaps of coloured egg trays out every week & I gather them up on my daily round of local trash sites and dumpsters. See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This is my first truck made from tin cans from the trash - I was especially pleased that a piece of cut-off metal from my own trash can was ideally suited to be smoke from the exhaust stack! The driver is the Zig Zag Man (here in NZ he is on the cover of packets of cigarette papers for rolling tobacco) & his companion is MM herself. The back door opens to reveal a cargo of party-poppers - small bottles which shoot streamers into the air with a “bang” when you pull the string. These square tins are harder to find than the round ones - so I am keeping my eyes open. I got the idea for this piece from a fantastic book “The Fine Art of the Tin Can” by Bobby Hansson. Thanks mate for all the inspiration! SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This robot made from tins from my trash can was another entry in the Mairangi Arts Centre exhibition. He has sardine cans for feet, & his legs are filled with scrap metal & sand to keep him stable. I think the “cigar” in his mouth makes him look a little like Clint Eastwood!? SOLD See more of my  recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

Every Sunday I make the rounds of several skips [dumpsters] in the industrial estate & outside charity shops. Sometimes I come home with very little, other times I find some real gems...all raw materials for robots, clocks, mobiles etc. I take a stepladder to get up to the bigger skips, & have large boxes in the van to hold the goodies. I also take a crowbar, wire-cutters, a hammer, & a wrench - so that I can free/undo the bits I want. At present it is winter here, down-under, so I am often out there in the cold rain. I take a thermos of hot water with me & afterwards park-up beside the beach & enjoy a large cup of tea & a biscuit - before talking a walk on the beach in search of flotsam & jetsam. The green skip is outside the scrap-metal dealers, I have also shown its contents last week - it was very full, & I couldn’t delve very deeply. I got some tins (robots & trucks), 2 pair of gardening shears (hands for a figure?), & some barbell wei