Vendors and artists made to-order personalized gifts from sliced-up license plates, or turned them into mailboxes and bird houses.
Silverware became wind chimes. Wine glasses and bottles turned into small hanging flower vases. Outdoor faucet knobs made the blossoms of a flowering bush. Metal boxes, commemorative DVD tins and baking pans found new life as bugs.
Builders and makers working in the used and unwanted returned to Esther Short Park over the weekend, turning what would have otherwise been waste into countless creative combinations for display and sale at the Recycled Arts Festival.
Jill Krumlauf, environmental outreach specialist for Clark County Public Health’s Green Neighbors program (the health department puts on the show), said there were 135 vendors at the show, the 12th annual.
There were also a handful of food vendors, sponsor tents and nonprofit education booths.
Beyond perusing the art, guests could test out organic outhouses, see a student robotics team’s work or check under the hood of an electric MGB.
The Procession of the Species returned for its second year, with its parade of costumes and floats, and brand new were the tiny house display and the Falconer exhibit, which included live birds of prey.
The event’s biggest year saw about 40,000 people, Krumlauf said. Last year seemed light, likely due to heat, but she estimated this weekend was among the festival’s busiest.
“This year feels really strong and heavy, so I would imagine it would be between that 35- and 40,000 range,” she said, adding that Saturday was so busy it took extra effort to get around.
Vancouver’s Keely and Derrick Plager came with their kids — Liam,12, and Quinn, 7 — to check out the art.
“This is, I think, our fourth year — third or fourth year — coming here and inevitably we find something amazing every time we come,” Keely Plager said. “Usually it’s either jewelry or sculptures.
Liam was holding this year’s prize, a metal dragon made of nuts, bolts and other metal bits. It nose was made of welded-on screws.
They did two laps, Keely Plager said: one to scope things out, and one to see if there was anything worth picking up.
“It’s amazing, and everyone’s super nice and excited to show their creativity, and we also go away with good ideas for stuff around the house, projects for the kids,” she said.
Also cool, Derrick Plager said, is watching the familiar artists grow and branch out.
One vendor made flower vases last year, he said. This year’s offerings included sculptures made with discarded woks.
“How they progress and move on with their art, it’s kind of fun to see,” he said.
