Creating artistic magic from scrap

Working from her cosy Bathurst bedroom surrounded by snoozing dogs, Clare Rothwell creates whimsical, functional art from newspapers, dictionary pages and egg boxes. Former city slicker Rothwell, 50, who moved from Johannesburg to Bathurst with her mother, Elinor, on a whim 11 years ago, uses materials that would otherwise be discarded, turning them into animal sculptures — some of which provide lighting. Her sustainable mixed-media practice began in 2014 when she could not find the lamp she wanted in stores and followed her mother’s lead to make her own.

“As a preschool teacher and trainer, my mom has been recycling since long before it was trendy, so recycled materials seemed the obvious choice when I decided to make a standard lamp, having failed to find anything I liked in shops. “After an initial experiment, I made a lamp the same height as me, in the shape of a woman balancing a basket on her head, wearing a long, flowing dress.” Pleased with the result Rothwell, who dotes on Africanis Thandi and “sort of Africanis” Ally, continued to give waste a second life through art. “I found that I enjoyed the challenge of transforming unwanted materials into art, and making use of their existing properties, for example the strength that wood fibre gives to paper and cardboard.” Now her home is resplendent with creatures of every kind, fashioned from waste she collects from her own home as well as from friends and shops.

Wide-eyed owls gleam warmly, and cats and giraffes helpfully grip lamps in their mouths, supplying light in the most charming of ways. A group of dogs, looking suspiciously like pet model Thandi, stand in a group, eager to please. “I’ve made giraffes, geckos, owls, penguins, whales, a cat, a rhino, dogs and an octopus.