Now THAT’S a road hog! Sculptor turns old car hubcaps into a stunning menagerie of creatures, from warthogs to a jaguar
- Ptolemy Elrington, 54, from Brighton, first began making the sculptures in 2002
- The sculptor has now collected 5,000 hubcaps to turn into the animal creations
- Among his favourites are a jaguar on the prowl and a domestic kitten on a stroll
They usually just make for an eyesore littering the roadside after a driver clips the kerb. But for sculptor Ptolemy Elrington, discarded hubcaps help satisfy his urge to create something to marvel at.
Scouring verges, he has collected more than 5,000 to turn into beautiful animal creations which can fetch £5,000.
Among his favourites from the cat world are a jaguar on the prowl and a cute domestic kitten out for a stroll.
Sculptor Ptolemy Elrington, 54, from Brighton, East Sussex, who first began making his hubcap sculptures in 2002, has now collected 5,000 of the discarded material to turn into beautiful animal creations
Hubcat: This magnificent prowling jaguar created by the sculptor is 1.75m long and would fetch £5,000
Joining Mr Elrington’s creations is an owl worth £3,000 (left) and a snake sculpture which is being sold for £800 (right)
Those from the oceans include a great white shark with its teeth bared measuring more than 3ft 6in long, and a far less terrifying-looking tuna.
There’s everything from a howling arctic wolf to a chinchilla peeping out of a box.
Mr Elrington, 54, from Brighton, East Sussex, started making his hubcap sculptures as a hobby and has been a professional sculptor since 2002.
He said: ‘It’s an odd choice of medium. I used to live in Bradford quite near a sharp bend and bump in a road where hubcaps came off cars and collected by the roadside. Some were really nice designs and shiny.
‘I started picking them up as I thought there must be something I could do with them.
‘My initial idea was to make a suit of armour, but when I started cutting them up I saw fish shapes and the sculptures grew from there.’
Hogging the limelight: You would have to splash out £3,500 to lay claim to this wonderful warthog
Ocean commotion: Also among Mr Elrington’s creations is this fish sculpture which is on sale for £800
Eye eye: With a BMW badge keeping a look out for predators, this feisty fish costs £850
Joining the artist’s works are a 2m high eagle (left) which has a £3,000 price tag and a 40 cm chinchilla (right)
First, he cleans the hubcaps, then cuts and fashions them into the shapes he needs, drills holes in them and threads galvanised wire through them to hold his creations together. A final spray wash of the finished sculpture completes the process.
The sculptures take anything from a couple of days to three months to make, depending on size and complexity. Prices range from hundreds to thousands of pounds.
Mr Elrington, a graduate of Bradford College of Art, added: ‘The whole idea is recycling, re-using and upcycling — taking something that has been damaged or discarded and changing it so it has a second life.’
■ To view more of his work or buy it, visit hubcapcreatures.com
Froget me not: Also featuring in Mr Elrington’s collection is this 1m high hopper which will set you back £1,000
Scale model: An amazing armadillo like this fine fellow costs a nitty £900
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