Wem pupils going ape over bottle top gorilla
First there was the spoon gorilla, now its the turn of the bottle top gorilla to be created in Shropshire.
Students at Thomas Adams secondary school in Wem wanted to combine art with raising awareness of recycling.
They joined forces with the British Ironwork Centre, and came up with the idea of a gorilla sculpture made from plastic bottle tops.
Members of the school Eco Club visited the centre near Oswestry recently to see how the mesh cage to contain the bottle tops, being made to look like a gorilla, was taking shape.
Teacher, Maxine Turner, said the children's imagination had been fired by the idea of using household waste to created art.
Chairman of the Ironwork Centre, Clive Knowles, said: " The school’s Environmental Club approached us to discuss their project ideas and challenged us to create something inspiring for their bottle tops.
"Completely inspired by their environmental ideas, we chose to create a metal mesh mountain gorilla which has been designed to hold over 100,000 bottle tops and will become the integral base for their bottle top sculpture. One of the world’s most endangered species, the mountain gorilla is the perfect symbol to help raise awareness for the protection of our environment and its species, and we can’t wait to see the finished project later in the year.
"When they visited the students helped our in-house blacksmith to complete the gorilla by welding the final few pieces together. It was fantastic to watch the students participate in the creation of the first leg of the sculpture’s journey and we are very excited to see the piece come to life through their recycling efforts in the near future.
"Now the school is launched its appeal for bottle tops to fill the gorilla."
The centre won national fame for the gorilla it made for Uri Gellar, constructed from spoons.
