The Adlington Post

Last week I found a jar of coins in a dumpster.  There are some 300 coins, the oldest a one cent piece from Ceylon dated 1925 & bearing the impression 'George V King and Emperor of India'. The other coins are from the Philippines, Fiji, Holland, British Borneo, Greece, Italy, Tonga, the Seychelles, France, Great Britain, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vanuatu, Canada, China, Panama, Hungary, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Cayman Is, Argentina, Cooks Is, & an unidentifiable Islamic country.

On Mondays & Wednesdays the shops put out their paper for recycling. The local newsagent disposes of all their unsold newspapers & magazines from the past few days. Here my neighbour [Lily] is helping me sort out glossy magazines for collage & the Eco Games I make.

These toy soldiers came out of a skip on the North Shore, Auckland. I cut the “peace” charm from the lid of a Tupperware container - lets hope it works!! See more trashion pieces on my recycled art website www.martinadlington.webs.com www.martinadlington.webs.com

I made two small robots at the weekend from hand-held fans The fan blades have LED lights in them & make the most amazing oscillating patterns - as shown! The first robot below has lego-style arms & legs, while the other has milk-bottle caps for feet. They both have a small LED torch strapped to one arm. See mare recycled art at my website: www.martinadlington.webs.com www.martinadlington.webs.com

Yesterday I attended a spontaneous happening in Ponsonby @ "The Soho Hole" - a large derelict building site in the heart of the city. Inner city Auckland residents lack a beach, so they improvised. The graffiti reads "I wish this was a swimming pool" - someone's wish came true!

My good friends from the local Salvation Army thrift shop just delivered 18 old computer keyboards to my door - they were otherwise destined for landfill!! I make "leet" earrings from the keys, & necklaces from the cords & inner bits. See my new website for more trashion & recycled art: www.martinadlington.webs.com

On Sunday March 8 I attended an Eco Day at the Sustainable Living Centre in New Lynn, Auckland with my recycled artworks. There were 50 other stalls all with an environmental theme. The event was a great success for all concerned & I look forward to attending again next year. See my recycled art for sale at: www.martinadli www.martinadlington.webs.com ngton.webs.com

On Sat March 7 I held a workshop at the Lakehouse Arts Centre in Takapuna: “Using a Jeweller’s Piercing Saw”. Six people attended & after I had demonstrated the technique the class had great fun applying their new skills to cutting shapes from copper & aluminum sheet, LP’s, CD’s, plastic, coins, MDF, & paua shell.

Helen & Yudi are kindly stocking my recycled artworks in their eclectic shop [Buanu Satu - "Number One" in Indonesian] in K Rd, Auckland, & they have made a display area for the pieces...as seen below. Thanks guys - its a great showpiece for me. We see here a cross & a heart of "flowers" cut from egg cartons on real-estate sign, an eco-game, a clock - with more clocks below, 'fridge magnets on crosses cut from waste steel, 3 large robots made from tin cans, several small robots from sweet & mustard tins, a flying saucer from an old lampshade, a truck from an oil can, fish cut from jandals I found on the beach - mounted on more real-estate sign, & more clocks....see blog entries below for close-up pix of most of these works...& remember the 3R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - the most important being REDUCE! See more recycled & upcycled work at www.martinadlington.webs.com

Yesterday I attended a fundraising evening at the Kaipatiki environment centre, the guest speaker was comedian Te Radar who talked about environmental stability & revealed some hilarious behind-the-scenes moments from his recent TV show “Off The Radar”. I was given the opportunity to display some of my recycled artworks. This last week I have been making some new pieces in preparation for my exhibit the upcoming Eco Day on March 8th at the Sustainable Living Centre in Grey Lynn. On the tables in these pix can be seen a new jewellery range made from bicycle & car-tyre inner tubes, computer keyboards, milk bottle caps, coloured plastic A$ binder covers, rubber bands, bracelets made from plastic knitting needles I bent in my solar oven, pieces af aluminum louvre blind, packaging labels, plastic soy sauce bottle fish, ice cream spoons, old slides from the ‘50’s& ‘70’s - all found on the beach or in the trash. On the larger table is a robot, b

I have begun to turn my front room into a showplace for my recycled artworks so that visitors can see not only finished products, but works in progress as well as ideas formulating. Currently my work is also on sale in "Buanu Satu" in K Rd in Auckland, & in "Island" in Oneroa on Waiheke Island, & of course on my website www.martinadlington.webs.com

From my collection of small tins I have made some smaller robots - these guys stand around 15cm/6in high. The fat round one is made from a good old Kiwi tomato sauce bottle! ALL SOLD See more of myrecycled & upcycled work at www.martinadlington.webs.com