THE DAILY NEWS : SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2006 : GALVISTON
COUNTY TEXAS
Artist Terry Jones uses confiscated
weapons in his sculptures
By RICHARD KOTRLA Correspondent
LEAGUE CITY - One man's junk is Terry Jones' treasure.
Everything from hood ornaments
firearms confiscated by police end up in this Central
Texans art.
"My sculptures are only as good as the junk I put in them,"
said Jones.
Weapons confiscated and recently destroyed by the League
City Police Department will be used in a longhorn head
sculpture that will be on display at the Butler Longhorn
Museum in League City.
More than 100 weapons confiscated in traffic stops or used
in crimes will be part of the sculpture.
"This will be one of two pieces that I have sculpted from
confiscated weapons," Jones said. "The first was for the
sheriff's department in Leon County."
Jones, who owns an antique store in Jewett, has a longhorn
head he sculpted earlier on display at the Butler Longhorn
Museum. This piece is on loan until he completes the one
using weapons confiscated in League City.
"In the addition to the weapons, I am hoping local
residents will donate metal pieces that are significant to
them and perhaps the area that I can include in this
longhorn sculpture," he said. "They can contact the museum
if they have something they want to be a part of the
sculpture."
Jones' foray into metal sculpting grew out of the antique
store.
"There are a lot of antiques that never sell, and they end
up on the scrap pile," he said. "And somewhere along the
way, I acquired a welding machine.
"So one afternoon, I started welding together some of the
discarded antiques into different shapes. And then I put
some of them on display in my antique store, and they
started selling."
Inspired by the interest in his art, he began to weld more
things together.
Most of his works are of animals and fish, although he has
sculpted scrap metal into other interesting shapes.
"I like sculpting animals, particularly things like
longhorns, horses and pigs," he said. "And I have really
started liking to sculpt fish of various sizes, with my
largest being 3 feet."
Recently, he sculpted a dog for a customer.
"She brought the dog over, and I took exact measurements,"
said Jones. "I just recently finished the piece, and I am
proud to say it looks likes her dog, down to being the
exact same size."
Jones says customers will bring in metal items that are
significant to them and ask him to turn them into
sculptures.
"I have taken surgical instruments and other metal related
to the medical field and have turned them into sculptures.
Some of the confiscated weapons Terry Jones uses in his
art.
"And I have taken a lot of old farm implements and welded
them into sculptures for present and former farming
families."
Some of the more unusual sculptures contain family
heirlooms, such as jewelry. Jones often turns those into
paperweights.
"I think that's pretty neat, because they can display them
and not worry about them being stolen," he said. "The
paperweights are too heavy and big for someone to stick in
their pocket or purse."
"If you really look at one of my sculptures, you see lots
of strange and unusual things mounted inside them," he
said. "I like to have fun with my art and so I like to
incorporate some surprises into a piece."
How does he decide what to weld?
"Ideas just pop into my head, and then I start looking for
the right junk to weld," Jones said. "Some of the ideas I
have are not yet sculpture, but will be.
"One thing I want to weld is a life-size longhorn steer,
but I just haven't had the time."