Youth of all ages turned trash into art at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay on July 18-20.
Rockland sculptor Kim Bernard led an educational art program with the PopUpCycler, a traveling plastic recycling machine, in the Bibby and Harold Alfond Children’s Garden.
The PopUpCycler melts shredded No. 2 plastic into sticky modeling clay that can be shaped into anything an artist can dream up, including written words, abstract shapes, and functional items like flatware and chairs.
Bernard was already using recycled materials for her sculptures for many years when she learned about a machine that recycles plastic.
Dutch design student Dave Hakkens developed the Precious Plastic machine for his graduation project in 2012. Hakkens went on to launch a nonprofit organization, Stichting Precious Plastic Foundation, to freely provide all the information needed to build a Precious Plastic recycling machine, including specs and how-to videos.
“People were making benches and sporks and other cool things,” Bernard said. “I saw it also as an opportunity to make sculpture with the medium, no one was doing that, and I saw real educational potential.”
Bernard had her machine fabricated about four years ago. At first, she formed the extruded plastic into words and shapes by hand. Bernard recently started using molds to create larger, more solid pieces, including stools and boards, she said.
The PopUpCycler contains three stations. First recyclers cut translucent No. 2 plastic waste, such as milk jugs, into potato chip-sized pieces, Bernard said.
The second station is the shredder, which some users are entranced by.
“You can see the blades through the top window. It’s pretty cool and the kids usually want to watch it,” Bernard said.
While the process moves along, Bernard explains that her machine is small-scale recycling.
“I tell people when they send their plastic off to a recycling center, it goes through the same process on a (bigger) scale,” she said.
As the plastic melts, Bernard adds pigment to create a colorful final product. The plastic clay is 400 degrees when extruded from the machine at the final station, where the gloved user breaks off pieces to form into shapes.
“When it comes out it’s very stretchy, very sticky, so it sticks to itself,” Bernard said.
The hot pieces need to be attached quickly. If it is not handled in time, the material will cool and lose its stickiness.
During the weekend visit, Bernard supplied a variety of flora and fauna templates to inspire the young artists.
“I really impress upon them this is just for inspiration, they can make it anyway they want,” Bernard said.
Each piece made during Bernard’s visit will stay there as part of an exhibit wrapped around trees on the nature trail near Lilja, one of the five large wooden trolls around the botanical gardens’ property.
Bernard and Coastal Maine Botanical Garden staff will photograph everything and put the photos online so the artist can see their piece and know it is in there, Bernard said.
“We talk right away about how this is a group art piece. It’ll stay here for the whole summer for all the visitors to enjoy,” Bernard said.
Interpretation and Exhibits Program Manager Sarah Callan said last year’s art installation was themed around climate stripes. British climate scientist Ed Hawkins created a visual representation of historic climate trends with colors ranging from dark blue for colder temperatures to dark red for hot temperatures.
“You can see that our global temperature has been trending warmer,” Callan said.
Young visitors to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens made upcycled plastic flowers in all shades of blues and reds. The flowers were planted in the gardens all last summer.
This year, the PopUpCycler was even more popular. Bernard said July 18 was so nonstop she did not get a break all day.
By 10 a.m. the following day, the workspace was packed with families from all over New England who had come to enjoy the Saturday at the gardens.
Siblings Caroline, Teddy, Norah, and Henry Toohey, of Cape Elizabeth, were the first to try recycler on July 19. They said they had a good time making art from melted plastic, something none of them had done before.
Jules Brustlin seemed skeptical of each step but pleased with her finished butterfly. Oliver Henderson had a hard time letting go of his own butterfly. In exchange, Bernard let Henderson have a long strand of red plastic to take home.
“They get very attached, they say ‘I get to take it home, right?’” Bernard said.
The upcycled plastic art created on July 18-20 will be displayed at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens throughout the season. For hours and other information, go to mainegardens.org.
For more information about Bernard and the PopUpCycler, go to kimbernard.com.
