Inspiration turns scrap into art

Back in March, Linda Peck was out in her yard - where she spends every hour she can - picking her way among some bits of metal and farm machinery when it hit her:

"Something said, 'Linda, why don't you make a lamp.'"

So she took that metal and some glasswork she created working with noted local glass artist Susie Zietner and did just that.

"I made three of them right off the bat," she said. "Then I went crazy."

Her husband introduced her to a Central Oregon scrapyard, where she collected gears, axles, a manure spreader, a rotary lawn mower, saw blades...

She readily admits that she doesn't always know what the parts she picks up at the yard are. She knows she likes gears.

"I love gears," she said. "I'm a total gear-head."

So, she started building garden and yard art. That art will make its public debut at the Sisters Harvest Faire, where Peck has a booth for "Little Miss Sunshine's Spectacular Solar Yard Lamps."

"I get so much joy out of it and I wanted to share it," she said.

Just creating yard sculpture out of rusty, reclaimed metal parts wasn't enough. She wanted them lit up from bottom to top.

"I found solar lighting that works," she said. "No one has to go out and turn them on, nobody has to plug them in... It's a really soft 'fairy light'."

And lighting alone wasn't enough, either.

"They can't just be rusty and lit up," she said. "They have to have bling on 'em."

That's where the glass decoration comes in.

Peck's lamps are heavy and solid, as befits a sculpture made of rusty steel. They're also well put-together, thanks to help from her husband, Marcus, who is a skilled welder.

"Marcus has been helping me with metals that are and aren't compatible," Peck said.

"Little Miss Sunshine's Spectacular Solar Yard Lamps" is "a tiny little subsidiary" of the Peck's business, Signs of Sisters. She has no plans to conquer the world with her sculpture, which admittedly would be awkward and expensive to ship.

"I don't mind keeping it local," she said.

She does plan to do some work that is less imposing.

"I'm going to do some table lamps so people could have littler ones," she said. "Anything's possible - that's what I think on it."

For more information, stop by Peck's booth at the Harvest Faire or call 541-948-4256.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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