Recapping with Mike Valle

BDSI found Mike through our continuing search to locate artists that like to work with bottle caps. It turns out that Mike was only about an hour and a half away from us, so he was able to drive over and spend some time with us at our plant in Smithfield North Carolina. Mike is outgoing and full of energy, and it was great that he shared his talent with our staff. Mike brought a big car and took home a lot of caps. We hope that he will have continued success with his art projects!

Mike Valle looking through caps at BDSI with Mary Jo Buzard!

News Story about Mike Valle!

Mike was born and raised just outside of Boston, MA, and has always had an artistic background, painting and drawing throughout his childhood. He attended the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to pursue an art degree, and eventually fell into furniture design. The combination of the design process and the actual hands-on of building furniture allowed him to see a product from a concept to fruition of a finished product. He started saving caps while in college, seeing the variety of color, he knew something could be done with them, but it wasn't until about ten years of saving that Mike finally realized what his first project would be. After seeing a news clip about a group re-creating the Mona Lisa with cups of coffee in Sydney, Australia, he was inspired to make his version of the iconic image. After nearly six months of trial and error, Mike finally completed his first piece. Measuring about 3' wide x 5' tall, and weighing in at nearly 60lbs, she now resides on his dining
room wall.

Since 2009 Mike has created about 30 portraits and custom orders, refining his process, and slowly finding ways to make them quicker as well as reducing the weight. So far Mike has focused portraits. They are primarily of iconic photos of musicians, actors, and artists whom he likes, Mike’s custom orders are sports or company logos.

Mike is always happy to take on a challenge and can be contacted through email (ReCapsArt@gmail.com), his facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/recapsart), as well as Instagram: ReCapsArt