Things you throw away can become art in craftsman Huang鈥檚 hands
Print Edition
There’s a talented craftsman in Jiading’s Anting Town who can turn discarded objects such as broken baskets, kebab skewers and old pieces of wood, into elaborate models of buildings and ships, among others.
Huang Wenhao, 76, who lives in the Furong community, used to serve in the Chinese navy. To kill time when there was nothing to do on board the nation’s warships, he used seashells and rocks to make ornaments.
When he read a magazine article about the Yellow Crane Tower, a famous traditional building which was destroyed and rebuilt many times in history, he decided to make a model of it. He found pieces of different colored paper and used scissors and glue to create a paper version of the tower. It took him over a month.
Comparing his paper model version with the picture in the magazine he was not satisfied so he made a second version out of bamboo skewers and pieces of wood he found in the street and also persuaded house decorators to give him spare paint.
Huang has taken up his handcraft again. His tools are a kitchen knife and scissors.
Every day, he collects material such as discarded fruit baskets and cake boxes when he goes out for a walk. Huang turns board game pieces into loudspeakers on warships, cake boxes into roof tiles and fruit baskets into inner decorations of ships.
At first, his wife did not support him and accused him of looking like a garbage collector. But after Huang had completed some pieces her attitude changed and now she even accompanies him on his search for useful material. During their travels they have collected bamboo roots from the mountains and rocks by the sea.
Huang’s inspiration comes from life and when he came across a rosewood bird cage in an antique shop, he carefully observed the cage for a long time before drawing a blueprint from memory.
Then he compared it with the cage at the antique shop a couple of times to revise the blueprint. With the blueprint and some imagination, he produced a similar bird cage from discarded objects. The bird cage is now valued at 100,000 yuan (US$16,000).
Huang is most satisfied with his warship models as his 15 years as a sailor created a bond between him and the ocean-going vessels.
His warship models are intricate. The ship’s wheel can be turned, cables on deck can be moved and windows can be opened.
When children visit his house, he uses his warship models to educate them about life at sea.
Huang’s home is full of his works — a lobster made from bamboo roots, a peacock made from tree branches, an ashtray made from sea shells and a tiger made from weed.
His dream is to make a collection of buildings from all countries around the world because he wants to use his works to record the development of society.
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