Sunday, April 18, 2010

Water meter ring overload!

I thought for sure I had blogged about these before and tried to find the post and just put in a link here, but I couldn't find it. Anyhow, to make a long story short, courtesy of the Portland Water Bureau who went around the neighborhood replacing old water meter rings with new a few years back, I got a stash of these old rings. I've been slowly putting them in my garden as pavers. Of course, 'rings' by definition have holes in the middle, so I've been filling them with various things I've found, either for free or for very little, and using quick set cement to complete 'the look.'

This was one of the first completed, filled with some spotted beach rocks I picked up on San Juan Island when I visited Eliza for the first time after they moved to the island. The tile I bought for cheap at the rebuilding center. This meter ring came painted green (the rest were unpainted):



This one I just finished today, filled with Moroccan tile fragments I got from Shawn and Gretchin (thanks guys!):



Another one I did today, also filled with Moroccan tile fragments from Shawn:



Another early ring, 2 more beach rocks from my visit to San Juan Island and another tile from Rebuilding Center:



These next two were made in 2007 when my nieces were here to visit. They each finished a couple of the rings with glass marbles we found at the thrift shop and imprints:



This one has a hand imprint:



Another early ring with river rocks and a tile:



One with a tile and some rebar remnants I picked up from the side of the road on one of my walks:



This one has tiles from Taiwan. I picked them up at a garbage strewn site up on a hill when I went for a walk. That was probably 20 years ago:



These are a few of the completed rings; each one has its own little story.

What will I do when and if we sell the house? Dig them up and take them with me? These are probably not everyone's cup of tea, so will probably be dumped soon enough...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great project! Nice to see the Moroccan tile being put to good use! And, reusing those concrete ring thingies. Very cool.

pixiemayhem said...

I once carved all the plywood kitchen cabinet doors in a house, and had all kinds of crazy concrete stuff in the house...I thought it would get dumped. But the folks that bought the house were artists and loved all that stuff. so go for it, and just remember you're adding to the resale value! Perhaps someday it will be the Shu-ju lived here house

fingerstothebone said...

Hmmm, carved cabinet doors, eh? You probably shouldn't be encouraging this...

Michael5000 said...

They are of the awesomeness!