Many people love old cars, but what about old license plates? Pop artist Michael Kalish believes in creating art out of everyday objects. He's recycled thousands of old license plates into pop-inpsired metal art. Substituting license plates for paint and metal cutters for a brush, he creates art that would make Andy Warhol proud.
Michael begins one of his recycled metal pictures by digging through his inventory of old license plates. He looks for interesting words, phrases, and colors, then gathers up 10 of them. Next he'll use a pattern of a car he has drawn onto tracing paper and lay this over the plates. Using tin snips and a fine cutting saw, Michael cuts out 30 to 40 pieces. He labels the pieces in accordance with the auto template. Next, he uses an industrial soldering tool to weld the pieces into the shape of a car. For the windshields, Michael cuts out several pieces from a sheet of 1/4-inch clear glass. These are also soldered into the auto shape. All the solder lines are then treated with tin and zinc using a soldering tool. With the auto body complete, Michael lays it onto plywood and cuts out a corresponding car shape with a jigsaw. The plywood is then sanded down and painted with a white acrylic base. The metal auto shape is placed back onto the dried wood and bolted into place using zinc-coated wood screws. The finished automobile is approximately 3-1/2 feet by 1-1/2 feet.
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