MOSES LAKE — The organizers of the scrap metal art competition work to make it a challenge. That was the lesson of the oxygen tank that attracted the attention of the team from Pasco. 

The competition, held Thursday at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, requires participants to turn scrap metal into sculpture. Quentin Mattson, who was one of the supervisors for the Pasco team, said the final sculpture is shaped by the pile of scrap metal out behind the skills center welding shop. 

“It really depends on what material we saw when we got out there,” Mattson said. 

Every year there’s a theme, and the students don’t know what the theme will be when they walk into the competition. Actually, said skills center instructor Dave Oliver, the organizers don’t know it either. Oliver and fellow instructor Chad Utter wrote down some ideas, put them in a bowl and had a student choose the winner, which was “sea life.”

So the oxygen tank spotted by the Pasco team seemed like a natural. But another team got there first, Mattson said. So it was back to the drawing board. 

But there was that round plate, those rings, that broken hitch and a section of chain. The plate provided the catalyst — it suggested a sea turtle. 

“Everything else came to us while we were bringing materials in,” Mattson said. 

Six high school teams competed, including students from the skills center and Moses Lake High School, Eastmont, Connell and the Pasco team, which was made up of students from Pasco and Chiawana high schools. They were joined by the crew from Moses Lake welding shop, Miner Services.

“They’re not in it for prizes, they just wanted to come play,” Utter said.

Owner Seth Miner said he’s on the advisory board for the skills center’s manufacturing program, and Utter suggested he come watch the competition. Miner decided to bring his portable welding shop instead. 

“I said, “Dude, we’ll just bring our stuff and go at it,’” Miner said. 

Initially, teams could only take one bucket of materials, Mattson said but they could go back for supplemental pieces. The tanks, wheels, wire, sheet metal and unidentifiable junk dictate what the teams will be able to do, he said. 

One of the skills center teams looked at the chains, the wires and rebar, the metal housings and opted for an octopus. The team used a metal housing for the head and bent some metal rods into tentacles. The challenge, said Carter Ball, was proving to be the mouth and eyes. 

“We’ve got to get creative,” he said. 

The MLHS team picked up a battered scuba tank, and, said Sydney Garza, started kicking around ideas.

“We kind of based it off the first thing that came into our minds,” Garza said. 

The scuba tank would’ve been perfect as the body for a fish, but they overheard another team making plans for that, she said. So they opted for their second choice, an octopus.

The Connell team started with rebar, wire, metal rings, a sprocket and pipe connector. 

“We’re going to go fishing,” said Kaine Geddes. 

The rebar became the fishing pole, the wire the fishing line, and they used a fish cut from sheet metal with sheet-metal scales. 

“We all like fishing. We might as well do that,” said Max Davis.

It looks like an art competition, it looks like fun, and it is those things, Utter said, but it’s designed to be more than that. Teams are forced to figure it out as they go along since they have no idea what they will be asked to build, or what materials they will be using, he said. As a result, he said, they have to work together, collaborate and figure out how to divide up the tasks.

Mattson said it was a rare chance for students from the two Pasco high schools to work on the same project. 

“Creativity and imagination,” he said. “It’s fun to see what their brains can create when they’re put on the spot.”

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at [email protected]. Schweizer lives in Moses Lake and enjoys sewing.

    Kaine Geddes cuts apart metal springs that will become part of a fishing pole sculpture.
  

    From left, Jesse Jamison, Jacob Anderson and Isiah Allen try to decide if they like the placement of elements in their scrap-metal work of art.
  

    From left, Max Anderson, Uriel Ramos and Israel Baragas work on bending rebar.
  

    Tyler Hansen of Miner Services works on the submarine the crew built from scrap metal. Miner Services brought a team to the scrap metal art contest just for fun, owner Seth Miner said.
  

    Sydney Garza and Michael Suhling try to figure out a support structure for their sculpture
  

    Saira Lombera works on her team’s sculpture in the metal art contest Thursday at Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center