Friday, October 06, 2006
Transformed trash
Libba Wolfe
Libba Wolfe's column appears twice monthly in Extra.
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Jean Robertson is always on the lookout for castoffs. She trolls second-hand shops and eBay. She swoops in on retailers going out of business or houses being demolished. Her friends save her scraps from their own building projects -- broken tile, odd lengths of copper tubing, whatever is left over.
If you see a lady in a gray van creeping by your house after you've put a pile of junk on the curb, it's probably Jean.
Jean has an eye for junk, and after she's unleashed her creativity and do-it-yourself skills, she ends up with a one-of-a-kind piece for her house and garden gallery.
Eight years ago Jean and her husband, Bob, downsized from a 93-acre spread in Franklin County. They moved into a lovely place on a small, steep lot in Roanoke County. It was lovely in a very safe and standard way.
There's nothing ordinary about it anymore. And there's nothing ordinary about the soft-spoken Jean, who's not afraid to try anything.
There's something amazing at every turn. Sculptures made of old bicycle tires. Pots embellished with tile or shells, colorful collages, a rebar ballet dancer with a tutu Jean fashioned from a light reflector. Birdhouses everywhere. Mobiles hanging from branches and ceilings.
Robertson gave me a running "how-to" as we visited.
The most important rule is attitude. Creativity is not about caution. Try everything. So what if things don't work? Try something else.
TO DO
Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times
Table top candleholder made by Jean Robertson.
- To get your creative juices running, don’t miss the Blue Ridge Potters Guild Show and Sale, Oct. 13-15, Cave Spring High School. Functional and decorative work from 35 local potters. Demos might inspire you to take classes. blueridgepotters.com or 774-7114 for hours and directions.
- Wondering how it would be to have no leaves to rake this fall? Check out The Downtown Living Tour sponsored by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. Call 342-5790 for tickets to tour seven very cool urban living spaces. Oct. 14-15.
Get Liquid Nails. Apparently Robertson buys it in 40-gallon drums and uses it for everything -- inside and out, metal, wood, plastic, Styrofoam, tile.
Keep your eye out for frames -- the bigger the better. They can be painted, faux finished, covered with tile or shell mosaic designs, wrapped in colorful nylon rope, used as the bases for huge abstract collages.
Got a collection of old teapots or pottery pieces in the attic? Using Liquid Nails, make a totem pole to brighten up a dull spot in a shrub border.
What's a garden without birdhouses? Robertson has a pottery kiln in her basement and has created a school of fish-shaped birdhouses. She saves lumber and became a birdhouse architect. The scarecrows she made from clothes racks from Heironimus have backward birdhouse heads, tuna-can eyes, polka-dotted shoehorn noses and bird nests for brains.
Mobiles are an easy place to start. Small scraps of lumber, strips of lightweight metal, rolled and curled, pottery stars, plastic hearts or flowers, beads, whatever you like. Spray paint, use Liquid Nails or wire together what you can't glue and hang it from a branch.
Old chandeliers can be painted and decorated to hang or use as centerpieces. Robertson replaced the bulbs in one with small cups and saucers that hold votive candles.
Team up with a friend or paid professional for projects you can't do. Robertson designed the life-sized rebar and scrap iron horse tethered in the back yard. She collected the parts and had a welder put them together. She has an artist friend who painted the branches on her kitchen cabinets. Robertson made the drifting pottery leaves that serve as knobs.
As the planting season winds down there'll be more time for other projects. Don't worry about cleaning out the basement. You have a good reason for saving all that junk -- ART.
