Patrick Cogan sees potential in rusty grain scoops, old buckets, vintage cheese graters, glass bottles, teacups and silverware.
“It’s like the old saying goes; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” Cogan said at his home in Antrim on a recent Sunday afternoon.
Cogan, who is the owner of Recycled Illuminations and is also a music teacher at Great Brook School, repurposes tired items that he finds at the dump, various consignment shops, or is gifted from various businesses or departments.
He said he used to do wood carvings and while people would marvel at the items, they wouldn’t purchase the pieces, adding that there is no money in the craft.
Cogan was at the Peterborough Recycling Center one day when something caught his eye and he pulled it from the pile. Cogan took the piece back home and made a light fixture out of it.
He posted the finished product on Facebook for his friends and family to see. The piece received a slew of positive feedback and some even offered to purchase the item. One recycled light fixture turned into another and now he makes about seven or eight every week.
Within a couple of years, the business has rapidly expanded. He has sold fixtures to businesses across the country. His work can be found in various businesses in New York, Texas and California. Most of his sales are done online through Facebook, Etsy or his company website.
“It’s different, it’s unusual,” Cogan said about the success of the fixtures. “Not everyone has a tea cup hanging in their kitchen as a light.”
He has enough work where the business could turn into a full-time gig, although he has no plans to give up his job as a music teacher. Right now, he is content working during the day and returning in the evening to work for about two hours in his garage that doubles as a shop.
“It’s really my therapy,” Cogan said about the process.
And there’s no limit on creative inspiration when working with used items.
“We waste so much,” Cogan said. “There’s so much that can be done with it too.”
Recently he went to a house that had changed ownership and pulled out about two thirds of the items that were tossed into the dumpster. He found old buckets, vases, and shovel heads that he plans to repurpose. A fire department recently gave him oxygen tanks to reuse. He has made fixtures out of chair legs and the bottom of sofas. He has used old pipes to create industrial lighting fixtures.
“It’s so different from day to day,” Cogan said. “When I go into the shop I ask myself, ‘what am I going to do today?’ And I never know the answer until I start working.”
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.