broken tools converted into yard art and other landscape art inspiration

Jul 23, 2014 09:12:37

Once upon a time I bought 80 acres. And just before moving onto the 80 acres, I was struggling with trying to verbally describe different plans at different points on the property.

One day, during this period of time after the purchase and before the move, I was at a little craft fair. So very boring. Except for one spot where a guy had little critters that he had welded up from old tools. He said he would go to auctions and get a pickup truck load of old hand tools and parts for about $50. And then he would weld them together quickly and ....

(source)

I stuck these in spots through the property and then I could refer to things like "near the centipede!"

Jul 23, 2014 12:36:41

The craftsman has a good eye. Nice work.

Jul 24, 2014 19:33:18

I like the Craftsman, um, dinosaur? dragon?

Jul 24, 2014 20:09:09

Julia call it tyranysaurus wrench! lol

Jul 25, 2014 13:32:30

You just gotta have a way of looking at things.

Very cool

Jul 25, 2014 13:36:28

There's a plumber in our town who makes creatures too. The starting point is often the copper inner of hot water cylinders. He once made a King Kong which sat atop our picture theatre during the showing of said movie and beyond. The size would be an advantage for farm location ID purposes as they'd be easily seen.

Jul 25, 2014 13:47:54

Or then there's this... http://www.corrugatedcreations.co.nz/index.html
There's a whole town here in nz where this guy's stuff features. Some of them are huge...whole buildings. But there are more modest ideas too.

Jul 25, 2014 13:57:09

http://www.corrugatedcreations.co.nz/album/P-R/Pie%20-%20Putaruru.jpg

This one is especially for you, Paul!

Jul 27, 2014 22:48:23

Seems you have roads going to different sections of the property. If you have an icon for a place i.e frog pond, have a routed copy of the icon with an arrow for a direction sign on the road.

Aug 02, 2014 18:59:55

LIFE SIZE scrap metal and wood created into art...

Ex-Nihilo Sculpture Park Near Mt. Rainier National Park
Recycled Spirits of Iron Sculpture Park
http://www.danielklennert.com/

"When you first glimpse Dan Klennert's Recycled Spirits of Iron Sculpture Park on your way to Mount Rainier National Park, you might just brake to a stop. And if you don't, we guarantee you will want to when the next opportunity arises.

Peering over the fence you may wonder, "What IS this place?" In Latin "Ex-Nihilo" translates to "something created from nothing." The park is a random collection of animals, monsters, motorcycle riders and structures - all wrought from the imagination and materials found by the artist.

Go ahead, drive in and allow plenty of time for your journey through Spirits of Iron. Klennert has worked for years to create this garden, though he'll tell you that making art seldom feels like work - days pass like hours when he's inspired." copied from: http://www.visitrainier.com/pg/sculpture_park/Ex-Nihilo-Sculpture-Park-Near-Mt-Rainier-National-Park

If you're ever going to Mt Rainier National Park, definitely stop in! Dan is a kick in the pants to talk to.

Aug 17, 2014 17:31:31

Here's something rather purple, yet I love it!

From Fantasywire's Facebook photo..

Aug 17, 2014 17:40:39

Sue Rine wrote:http://www.corrugatedcreations.co.nz/album/P-R/Pie%20-%20Putaruru.jpg

This one is especially for you, Paul!

Here's the pic of that one:

Nice!

Somehow, with "corrugated" I kept thinking cardboard, not steel!

Aug 17, 2014 18:15:21

I'm not usually into fairies but that is stunningly beautiful. The delicacy of the seeds wafting away, yet made from something that could be seen as harsh. Love the Mt Rainier sculptures too.

Aug 17, 2014 18:38:49

Sue Rine wrote:I'm not usually into fairies but that is stunningly beautiful. The delicacy of the seeds wafting away, yet made from something that could be seen as harsh. Love the Mt Rainier sculptures too.

Me too.

The Fantasywire guy also makes dandelions, 6 ft tall, without fairies. His wire isn't exactly a recycled thing, but I imagine there are ways to upcycle used materials into a similar design.

Aug 17, 2014 19:41:39

WOW!
Just nip over to the dandelion paddock will you...

Jan 31, 2015 09:56:17

We have lots of stone at base camp. Just sayin'.

Jan 31, 2015 10:34:41

I love what I'm seeing in this thread, especially the dandy lion fluff fairies and now this video of balancing rocks......years ago, we were taking a long walk back into Monteray on the beach (after taking the bus out of town towards Carmel) and started seeing stacks of rocks and then more and more and then suddenly we surprised the guy as he was stacking.
We felt really bad because he had been off in his own world for who knows how long and just looked totally in a trance....

We end up stacking/balancing small rocks anywhere there are some with the grandkids........some last awhile and point directions, etc. This guy in the video has just set the bar really high!

Feb 07, 2015 10:09:37

Found this on the Repurposed Things FaceBook page.

As others commented, it seems a bit of a waste of what could be fairly decent shovel heads, but kind of a cool design, nonetheless.

Old shovels arranged into clever conifer cone sculptures. By artist Patrick Plourde

Jun 02, 2015 10:02:58

We're dreaming of more stone art here.

One example is this Kickstarter for a truck made out of dry stack stone.

From the artist Chris Miller's website:

See also the gorgeous stone art at Devine Escapes. This is just one photo.

Dec 14, 2017 01:50:35

This guy!

Sculptor John Lopez is a product of a place. His people’s ranches are scattered along the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota.

John’s own forte lies in gentling colts and perfecting their bloodlines—and he started his celebration of them by sculpting in clay. Capturing every nuance, every muscle, in this land where business is still conducted over a cup of coffee and “neighboring” is a way of life. Somehow that way of life—where times seems to have stood still—has seen the transition from horsepower to vehicles. The rusted carcasses of discarded equipment stand testament to generations of labor. And the man who knows blood lines has picked through them, choosing the elements of the past—the actual implements that plowed the soil or cut the grain or dug the dinosaur—and created the curve of a jaw, the twitch of a tail, the power of a shoulder.

John Lopez Studio

Mar 13, 2022 23:28:45

I just kind of feel the need to brag about my parents. They've created so much garden art out of antique, old, and family heirloom pieces of metal. Here's just some of their art.

Mar 18, 2022 12:08:56

And there's Yubi Kirindongo, famous artist of Curaçao. His work is all over the island. Most is made of car parts.
https://yubikirindongo.org/museum/
https://yubikirindongo.org/portfolio/art-in-public-space/
https://yubikirindongo.org/portfolio/car-parts/

Some of his art is made of natural materials
https://yubikirindongo.org/portfolio/natural-materials/

And so he inspireded the other Curaçaoan artist, Herman van Bergen, who mostly uses thorns ... https://cathedralofthorns.com/thornart/

Mar 20, 2022 01:34:55

I found some more pictures of my parents yard art!

I call this fellow the space ship (it used to have little antique glass power pole insulators underneath it, that looked like aliens disembarking from a space ship :D )

Some non-snowy pictures of Draco the Dragon. I love his spiky collar!

Shovels make such perfectly cute heads!

Here's the flower gate, as well as a flower fence, all installed. A lot of it is rebar and sheet metal, but accents were from old bits of semitrucks and other metal odds and ends.

Here's some more fun ones. The cattail one curves up to hold a windchime.

I'm pretty sure this guy is what started it all, a little over 20 years ago. My brother designed and made him in high school metalworking. I need to get a picture where he's not covered in snow!

Mar 20, 2022 01:39:17

These aren't quite repurposed tool yard art, but I think they're fun to share!

I love the use of lighting on these ones!

I'm pretty sure this fish's eye is a giant bolt...

This one is inside, but I could see someone hanging something like it outside, too. I love the use of gears and barn wood from the old family barn ♥

steampunk rustic clock made from gears and barnwood

Apr 01, 2022 14:58:09

I love this kind of stuff, makes me want to give it a try. Though it's not as easy as it appears. I showed my husband, because he can weld, a I could see him making stuff like this before his neck injury. I had to laugh. He liked it, but was upset ruining a couple of perfectly good pipe wrenches. That's my Horder. Thanks for sharing, so cool.

May 30, 2022 11:28:53

Found a perfect example for this thread!

From here

May 30, 2022 14:15:55

Actually, I think I want my screwdriver storage to look like this.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:

Wouldn't that make putting away screwdrivers (or other tools) more fun?

It would take some welding engineering (perhaps) to figure out the best rings or receptacles for the screwdrivers though. And the ones on the bottom half of the flower might need to be permanent and not removable.

Reminds me of this for zombie attacks...or gardening idea:

It just makes you want to have all the tools lined up on that wall, doesn't it?

Apr 12, 2025 17:27:42

These are so inspiring!! I love repurposing myself, and love seeing others and their creative works.

Apr 12, 2025 17:58:56

My parents have continued making more yard art since my last post. Here's some of their more recent work. I love how they turn these rusty bits of metal into beautiful works of art ♥

Apr 12, 2025 19:28:07

Nicole, those are so cool. The key wind chime reminded me of one my husband and I made together. I continue to collect keys as I prepare to make another.

This was made from a collection of keys, the top was from a bird feeder a bear brought down that I used to hang the keys from, the copper was from what we had on hand to make the chimes, the wood piece for the weight was something David found among his wood working scraps. My most favorite wind chime.

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