Paper sculpture

Thanks to Lis Long for telling us about these amazing paper sculptures made by husband and wife team, Allen and Patty Eckman.

The couple employ a unique method which involves placing paper pulp in clay moulds and then pressurising it to remove the water. The hard, lightweight pieces are then removed from the moulds and they painstakingly add detailed finishings with a wide range of tools. A sculpture can take them almost a year to complete.

The sculptures take their inspiration from traditional Native American Indian life. The Eckmans have been making these since 1987 at their home studio in South Dakota, USA and have earned over £3 million selling them, the record being a creation called Prairie Edge Powwow which sold for £47,000.

Allen said: 

"We create Indians partly because my great, great grandmother was a Cherokee and my family on both sides admire the native Americans...I work on the men and animals and Patty does the women and children"

New life for dead shopping trolleys

British Waterways has launched a hotline to deal with the perennial problem of abandoned shopping trolleys. It has been estimated that over 3,000 trolleys are pulled from its network every year. But what happens to a trolley once it has been rescued? Supermarkets reclaim a few, but the majority end their life in landfill. Because what else can you do with a dead supermarket trolley?

Lucy Mangan of the Guardian Newspaper has come up with a few ideas including using them to cut Olympics costs: "They're strong, they're metal, they look a bit like parts of all those building diagrams you see on the news - surely they must be able to brace something somewhere?". She also suggested hanging baskets for giants.

Meanwhile the magically named Ptolemy Elrington, an artist from Brighton uses them to make sculptures of animals.Here's a picture of Ptolomey with one of his creations.

What would you do with a dead shopping trolley? Let us know your ideas.