By Karen Middleton
ATHENS — A pair of modern day ironworkers have found a beautiful way to recycle.
Chris Meals and Matthew Givens, owners of Elite Iron Works, have been in business a little over a year on Browns Ferry Road, creating decorative and practical fences, gates and porch railings.
But a little time on their hands and a suggestion from Matthew’s mom, Jana Chinn, got them started down a whole new avenue of creation.
The pair has gotten into making bottle trees. It’s an art form that’s time has come.
With very few markets for recycled glass bottles, these garden sculptures find a use that is both beautiful and practical. Sun shining through the colored glass makes viewers look at ordinary bottles a whole new way.
Matthew, 38, who grew up in the Clements community, lost his father, David Givens, at a very young age. He has two sisters, Kerri Vice, 41, of LaGrange, Ga., and Leah Kennemer, 35, of Illinois. He also has one brother, Ryan Chinn, 31, also of Illinois.
Matthew had worked in iron “on and off” for several years for other companies before getting serious about the craft and going into business with Chris a year ago October.
Chris, 38,who grew up in Tanner, is the son of Lamar and Belvet Meals. He married Lori Dendey from West Limestone 18 years ago and they have two children, Laci, 17, and Sydney, 13.
Chris worked at a copper tubing plant in Decatur for 16 years before going into business with Matthew.
The business started as a part-time project. Due to the increased demand from the Limestone County area and surrounding communities such as Decatur, Madison and Huntsville, the business is now full time.
So what’s the attraction of ironworking?
“Every job is different,” said Matthew. “When you draw it up, it’s something different than what you started out with. It keeps you interested.”
One of the most interesting and at the same time most challenging of Matthew’s and Chris’s jobs is a private home near Brigadoon Subdivision. The pair has completed the first phase of work, creating a lacy iron trellis-type fence encircling an outdoor formal stone patio. The elaborate designs, some of which are seen in the accompanying photo, are reminiscent of the lacy ironwork of old New Orleans.
As well as ornamental ironwork, the pair also takes on security bars, security gates, bridges, steel stairs, arbors, trailers, tables, benches, and tube racks, among other welding projects.
With all the practical bread-and-butter projects, they say it’s relaxing to branch out into the artsy bottle trees.
They have built and sold more than a half dozen of the trees.
“We could make them all day if we have someone to buy them,” said Matthew.
The pair picks through the bottle collection at the Recycling Center for materials.
“We also go online for bottles,” said Matthew. “The Recycling Center has lots of green bottles, but few blue ones. The green ones are not as pretty as the blue.”
They say they will take all blue bottles anyone has to throw or give away.
As the bottle trees get more elaborate with reaching, curving limbs, balancing and weighting the trees for stability becomes increasingly important.
“I have taken old car parts for the base,” said Chris. “I’ve used sprockets, gears and brake drums.”
Sometimes they paint the metal parts, but Chris said some customers prefer the natural oxidized look of the metal.
Some of Matthew’s and Chris’s bottle trees can be seen at Classic Closet on Jefferson Street, just north of the courthouse square.
