‘Shed time’ shining a light on lamps

By Max Stainkamph

Jun 8, 2022

Creative: Shepparton’s Bryan Slade turns discarded pieces of old machines into fascinating indoor table lamps through his retirement pastime. Photos: Rechelle Zammit Photo by Rechelle Zammit

If you’re in school, watching the clock tick towards home time, every second seems to last an eternity.

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When you’re about to be crunched on a footy field, the second before impact could last an hour.

And when you’re flat chat at work, behind a bar or on the lunch rush, time flows by you without you noticing.

Bryan Slade is in his own time zone — which he calls “shed time”.

Since retiring, he’s been able to spend his time restoring scrap that time forgot and giving it a new lease on life, creating lamps or sculptures, which he then gifts to others.

Mates: Bryan Slade and Robby the Robot out the front of his Shepparton North home. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

“I just have a passion for all the rusty things, that’s because I’m old and rusty myself,” he said.

“A lot of stuff which might ordinarily be thrown away as scrap metal comes to me — rusty bike gears or horseshoes or whatever.

“It’s just otherwise going to be just thrown away, why not make something useful out of it?”

Lighting the way: A lamp made from an old telephone. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

An alien robot at his front driveway is one of Mr Slade’s largest constructions, but lamps made from bike gears, old microphones, telephones and more have been made and given to friends and family.

“Everyone buys Christmas gifts and it’s very commercial and I prefer to give someone something that’s totally different,” he said.

“It all sounds a bit soppy but I prefer buying something from the heart than just buying something off the shelf.”

Yard art: One of Bryan Slade’s non-lamp creations. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Mr Slade points to a lamp made of a century-old rabbit trap.

“What are you going to do with that? It’s grandad’s old rabbit trap, but you might look at it once and leave it in the attic, I’ve turned it into something useful,” he said.

Shed full: Bryan Slade with some of his creations. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Mr Slade said he had been tinkering in sheds for “as long as I can remember”, and while he never made a living from it he had loved working with metal for a long time.

“Timber never does what I want it to do, with metal you can bend stuff,” he said.

"Now I’ve been lucky enough to retire I’ve been able to have a bit of shed time.“