Photo by Lexi Coon.
Diana Vest at her stand at Moss Rock Festival in November.
As a child, Diana Vest dug through the trash to embellish her macaroni art with pencil shavings and broken crayons.
Now, she loves collecting pieces to build what she calls her junkyard bots.
“I’ve always had this quirky sense,” said Vest, a North Shelby County resident. “I love things that tell a story and have a history. And I love creating things out of items that other people may not see as valuable.”
She finds these items in flea markets, garage sales and estate sales. Vest looks for unique pieces she can envision fitting together to make these miniature statues.
A memorable bot is one she made for a woman in Texas whose mom has breast cancer. Vest added parts of pink ribbon, hair and cooking utensils because the woman’s mother loves cooking.
Each bot presents its own set of challenges, Vest said, even down to their construction, which involves connecting all the pieces with bolts and screws. One of the most difficult aspects to constructing the bots, Vest said, is figuring out how she can attach all the pieces and what type of equipment she’ll need to do so.
On the flip side, there have been many positives, including the outcome of Moss Rock Festival in early November, Vest said. This is the first show where Vest has displayed her work, and she she completely sold out.
She hesitated to do the festival because she worried nobody would buy the bots, Vest said, and she would be the only one who liked these “off the wall” creatures.
“The comments and people who came through my booth were so complimentary and supportive,” Vest said. “It was so much fun to meet people and get ideas from them.”
While selling out was an accomplishment in Vest’s mind, she still has other aspirations with her art. She hopes to see returning customers. It’s satisfying to her knowing somebody wants to continue to purchase her work.
In addition to the bots, Vest also creates other pieces of art out of items other people have given her.
Once, her daughter and a granddaughter of Mickey Mantle, a famous baseball player for the Yankees in the 1950s and ’60s, had a class together. Mantle’s son and one of Vest’s friends came to her with one of his dad’s cigar boxes, and she created a watch box.
Even though she’s only been making the junkyard bots for a year, Vest has met people who share her sense of style, and this is something she loves.
She urges anyone who wants a bot or has a particular item that carries sentimental value to call her and she will use it to make something special. She can be reached at 994-4126.
