Found Arts and Crafts - Amy Flynn FOBOTS

Mailer Demon FOBOT by Amy Flynn Professional 2010 NICHE Award winner in the Recycled Category

It’s becoming more common for artists and crafters to change the purpose of scraps to create crafts. For example, recycling billboards to make paper jewelry or old nuts and bolts to make sculpture. In fact, this is such big business that many books on the subject have been written. One of my favorites is using old shower curtains to make handbags.

That being said, I’m on record for not being a big fan of found or recycled artwork. It’s the nature of the beast that all artists and crafts technically use ‘recycled’ or 'repurposed' goods. Let’s face it if you don’t retrofit your scraps to use in other projects, your cost of goods sold will be higher than need be and perhaps keep you from making a reasonable profit.

Creating Marketable Found Artwork

However, after viewing the witty and well-done found item art work by Amy Flynn, I have changed my mind. 2010 NICHE Awards winner in the Professional Recycled category, her designs are extremely popular and are a fantastic representation of this type of art and craft.



The little cutie shown on this page was born on August 9, 2009 and is 18.5 inches high. Fabricated from a chocolate tin, Baby Brownie camera, fire alarm, barbecue fork, wrenches, jello molds, hydraulic fittings, cleat, valve springs the artist marketed and sold this item for $795. It also took the winner's cup for the 2010 NICHE Awards in the recycled category.

What I have taken away after viewing her artwork is that if one wants to work in this niche, it’s important to tailor yourself in a genre. For example: humorous. Looking at Amy Flynn's Fobots (Found Object Robots) makes me smile. I can also see found artwork going the extremely edgy route.

Can found crafts be functional? Certainly. Take the example of crafters turning old kimonos into other pieces of apparel.

Selecting Found AKA Junk Raw Materials

All trash is not created equal. There has to be a logical combination of found items so that all parts create an appealing and marketable whole. Check out this blog entry by Amy Flynn addressing where she finds her items to craft her FOBOTS.

Setting a Retail Price for Found Artwork

Finally, keep in mind that the sales price of any found artwork must include reasonable labor. In many cases the supplies to create the piece of art may cost a ludicrously small amount of money. What creates the value in the piece is your crafter-eye artfully combining the found items and the amount of time it takes to assemble all the pieces into a whole.

Most artists are very familiar with this concept. Depending on what medium the artist works in, brand new materials can be quite inexpensive. Value is derived from the skills needed to assemble the materials.

The next page shows Ms. Flynn’s finalist for 2010, another darling FOBOT: Nest-O-Matic 3000.

The FOBOT shown on this page was a finalist in the 2010 NICHE Awards. His name is Nest-O-Matic 3000. Born on March 14, 2009, he is 25.5 inches high. Ms. Flynn fabricated him from a toy tool box, glass bowl fuel filter, mechanical bird, wrenches, valve springs and faucet escutcheons.

And if you are scratching your head, wondering what the heck an escutcheon is - in this context it is a stainless steel flange which appear to me to be his feet.

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