Artistic Recycling: Amazing Furniture Made From Old Bicycles

Stylish and unique furniture made from bicycle wheel rims, handle bars, and frames.

Where do bicycles go when they die? Andy Gregg transforms these unwanted vehicles into contemporary furniture. Using the stainless steel and aluminum frames, wheel rims and handlebars from old bikes, Gregg creates chairs, tables and barstools.

This lounge chair is made from old bike parts, using inner tubes to creates springy rubber upholstery.

Gregg has been creating recycled bicycle furniture since 1990, refining his designs and adding more pieces to his inventory. Each piece has a slick, clean look; a positive image that one would not expect from old bike parts.
His creations also include recycled items from other locomotives. Windows from trains and cars become glass table tops and seat belt webbing is used for upholstery.

Windows from old cars are reused as glass table tops for coffee tables and bar tables made out of old bicycle wheels. You can just see the spokes of the bicycle wheel through the glass top of this table; an interesting talking point for anyone who's seeing the furniture for the first time.

Many of these designs can weather a life outdoors as practical and attractive garden furniture. Certainly a topic for conversation, the furniture offers both aesthetic value and functionality.

The Loveseat is a chair made for two people to sit side by side; a perfect relationship gift for bike-loving couples. To make the arms of the couch, the artist has bent bicycle wheel rims to create a more comfortable shape.

Gregg offers custom-made options, so a buyer may choose the type and color of upholstery; material variations include rubber inner tubes, leather, clear or colored acrylic, cork and vinyl. Customizable furniture allows the buyer to choose the material of the armrests and the color of the seating. Recycling takes many forms and exciting artworks made from old, unwanted items is becoming more popular. Andy Gregg’s designs are certainly a unique and functional use of old bicycles.
Located in Marquette, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior, Bike Furniture Design Headquarters continues to create new and interesting recycled furniture. For more info and designs, or to buy recycled furniture online, visit Bike Furniture Design.

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Recycled Kitchen Utensils become Art

Sayaka Kajita Gans is a Japanese artist who recycles discarded kitchen utensils, toys and metal items by transforming them into emotive sculptures.

Sayaka Kajita Gans, Recycling Artist

Gans says that her work process reminds her of growing up in several different countries. Moving from one home to another throughout her childhood gave Gans a sense of disconnectedness, which is conveyed through her art. Each item that Gans chooses to use in her artworks are carefully selected, and must meet the requirement of being previously owned, used and discarded. Gans gives these pieces a new life by combining them to create an animal form that seems almost alive.

Gans uses flowing lines to create a sense of life and movement in her sculptures. Each creature seems to be frozen in time, like a single frame out of an animation. Each part of the animal is made up of a series of curves and arcs that further add to the sense of movement that the sculpture conveys. Art made with reclaimed objects is gaining popularity around the world, but it is a rarity to see such skill applied to recycled art.

When sketching, an artist will often create motion lines behind the subject to convey speed and movement. Gans has incorporated this technique into her sculptures, as seen above in the sculpture of a running cheetah, Fogo. These motion lines add to the sensation of movement in Gans’s work.

In Emergence, Gans has created two horses that appear to be emerging from a wall. The incompleteness of the horse’s bodies portray Gans’s sense of disconnectedness. It creates a transitory feeling of life existing only in a moment, fading into the past within seconds, never to be reclaimed. In converse, it can also form the idea that life emerges from the past, yet is always tied to its beginnings.
 In Emergence, one can easily see the shapes of some of the found objects that Gans has used. The ears on the black horse are spades, and the ears on the white horse are large spoons.

This piece uses several individual sculptures to create the finished product, Plunge. The penguins depicted appear to be plunging into water, even though they are hung in air. The piece gives the viewer the fun sensation that they are standing beneath the surface of the water watching the penguins dive. Gans has given the impression of water movement behind the penguins by twisting wire into swirls. 

Below are more examples of Gans’s sculptures. You can visit her website at SayakaGans.com

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Vinyl Records Find a Second Life as Art

For decades, vinyl records were a way for music recording artists to share their music with the world. When cassette tapes and then CDs and MP3 players were invented, vinyl records were shelved. Now, artists are giving vinyl records a second life as art pieces.

Clocks

With their circular shape and central hole, vinyl records can easily be converted into clocks. To add a bit of flair, shapes can be cut into the record or it can be painted with an attractive design.


Vinyl Records Recycled as Bowls

Vinyl records become pliable when heated, which means that they can molded into a variety of shapes. The most common shape is a serving bowl.

Vinyl Records become Kinetic Sculptures
South African artist William Kentridge created this kinetic sculpture, Phenakistascope, in 2000. When the handle is turned, the two vinyl records spin in opposite directions, created an optical illusion of animation.

Utilitarian Upcycled Records

Old LPs as Musical Decor
Shaped records create colorful, textured wall decorations; perfect interior decor for the music lover’s home.

Recycled Records become Wearable Music

The glossy black color of vinyl records creates an eye-catching piece of jewelry. Records can also be used as jewelry stands for earrings.


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