Recycled Tin Cans in My Studio
These tins, diverted from their destiny as trash or rescued from the recycling bin, wait to be opened up and flattened as my raw material.
I use ordinary tins like the olive oil tins above from the grocery tins or the steel Cut Oatmeal tin below.
Old film cannisters were tin. I search for them everywhere.
First, the bottoms are carefully pried off and the sides pounded flat. This takes about 10 minutes per can.
Vintage tins are displayed around my studio. It is very interesting to observe what packaging has to say about time and place. Colors, words and images are a reflection of social structure and the values of society.
People often ask where do I get my tins? The answer is that everyone I know gives me tins all the time -- from my exercise class, my children's orthodontist, the dry cleaner, and many others. My father used to search for tins at flea markets and church rummage sales. My sister used to goes to yard sales.
Frequently, people who read about my work in magazines or on the internet just send me a box of tins.
The AOL Tins (shown below) from the beginning of the Internet (circa 1988) are hard to find.
Game tins often use tin cans to great the perception of premium quality. These Trivial Pursuit tins are great colors and words. I used Trivial Pursuit Game tins for a Seder Plate.
Using Vintage Tin Cans used in my artwork
20th Century tin cans are absolutely fabulous for inspiring new work. These Scotch tape tins held scotch tape, an innovation of the mid-20th century. They are an early 3M product and used for an artwork candy dispenser.
Images of Women Used for Advertising
Images of woman are used in advertising to the present day. Even new tins, often use old, antique images of woman from painting to vintage advertising.
Antique Tin Cans
I have many old antique tins that I have not cut up. In the photo (below) is a tin with an image of art “The Age of Innocence” by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Wall of Tins
The tins are opened, flattened and organized by color and theme.
Themes organizing the tins include:
candy
candy patterns
cookies
crackers
standing women
sitting women
vintage ads
new products
holidays
and more!
The wall of tins in my studio has 1000's of tin cans ready to use as my raw material.
If the tins don't fit into a specifc category, they are organized by color. For example, here are the yellow tins.
These shelves hold tin cans and game board boxes filled with work in progress along with materials and supplies for new work.
CUTTING TIN CANS
First, the bottoms are carefully pried off and the sides pounded flat. This takes about 10 minutes per can.
After the tins are flat, they are stored on shelves. Look at Wall of Tins to see just a small portion of my flattened tins.
These irons are part of my extensive iron collection.
Learn more about my iron hallmark.
I buy every tool that I can find for cutting metal. Each type of metal cutting shear works a little differently.
Cutting tin cans
Tin cans are usually cut by hand with metal cutting shears shown above. If I am cutting larger cans or straight lines it is faster to use the step shear shown below.
This is a STEP SHEAR. Stepping on the yellow horizontal pedal lowers the blade like a guillotine.
This is a very dangerous tool if you aren't careful. You could easily cut off your fingers.
If you watch the Grass video or The Fabrication Process video to see the shear in action.
PEXTO is the brand name, a superior quality American tool company. My father got this shear for me many years ago.