Two-Wheeled Timepiece Sculptures

After seeing some miniature watch parts motorcycles online and then learning the two-wheeled treasures were not for sale, Ontario artist Dan Tanenbaum, a compulsive watch-collector with a nagging need to create, turned disappointment to inspiration and set to work. Using spare watch bits and cast-off parts, he made his first watch parts motorcycle sculpture and was hooked. "What I like most about building these pieces," he says, "is that there really isn't a wrong way of building them. With so many custom bikes out there, I have the freedom to think outside the box."

Not wanting others to be disappointed as he was, Dan Tanenbaum accepts custom orders for his watch parts motorcycles so long as folks are willing to wait. "Each bike takes around a week for me to build," he says. "The bikes have proven to be an amazing outlet for my creative side. I continue to enjoy the mediation that goes along with building these unique pieces."

Implications - In a throw-away society, discarded, broken, surplus and previously used materials are cheap and abundant. Finding new ways to use them provokes fresh thinking about old objects. Adapting materials at hand to meet a need is both emotionally satisfying and environmentally responsible. Rather than establishing a concept to drive material choice, materials drive concept development and open creative solutions that might not be considered otherwise.