Artist Recycles Old Hubcaps Into Beautiful Animal Sculptures

British artist Ptolemy Elrington collects thousands of old abandoned hubcaps from all across Britain to make these beautiful animal sculptures. The artist breathes life into the sleek metal and plastic hubcaps, along with the emblems of the cars they belonged to, by turning them into creatures both natural and fantastic.

The artist was at first inspired to recycle when he went to India and saw that recycling and upcycling ideas are finely integrated into their everyday lives. “When I left Bradford I went to India for a year and I saw an enormous amount of poverty there,” said the sculptor to BBC. ”But one of the things that really struck me was the fact that everybody used and reused things that got broken, they couldn’t just chuck it away and get a new one like we often do in the West. They kind of just mended it or changed it into something else. I wanted to kind of include that idea, that concept in my art somehow.”

Elrington now works as a hubcap sculptor full-time - the cost of his sculptures range from £200 to £10,000. “If it’s a piece I really like I make it expensive ‘cause I don’t want to sell it,” laughs the sculptor.

More info: hubcapcreatures.com | Facebook (h/t: mymodernmet)