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Skaterturns
brokenboards
intowearableart
By Kathleen Szmit
kszmit@barnstablepatriot.com
KATHLEEN SZMIT PHOTO
CRAFTY AND CLEVER - Skateboard enthusiast Tim Burlingame,
an employee of The Boarding House on Main Street in Hyannis,
has created his own line of jewelry and other crafts made from
repurposed skateboards.
Tim Burlingame might be
a skateboarder at heart , but
he also has an artistic side.
Recently he combined his tal-
ents in creating colorful rings
and earrings made from broken
and repurposed or upcycled
skateboards.
"I' ve always done art ,"
said Burlingame, a longtime
employee of The Boarding
House in Hyannis.
His foray into jewelry actu-
ally began when he used old
skateboards to make a rack for
holding, well, skateboards.
"It just kind of went from
that to,'What else can I do?,'"he
said. "The next thing I knew I
was makingjewelry."
Rings were the first creation
the skateboarding enthusiast
went for as part of his new side
business, Ply Product .A skate-
boarder since childhood , not
to mention in the business of
sellingboards viaThe Boarding
House, Burlingame possessed
a keen understanding of the
composition of skateboards.
He also had a basic knowledge
of carpentry, and through trial
and error began creating rings
of different sizes.
The pieces come in three dif-
ferent styles, all depending on
the types of old skateboards
used. According to Burlingame,
the easiest involves using a
board with seven plys or lay-
ers of wood. Cutting a cross-
section of a quality skateboard
reveals the different layers of
wood, each of which is typically
stained before being pressed
together with others to form the
board. While some layers are
the natural color of the wood,
others have been stained into
rich tones , which lend them-
selves to the creation of the col-
orful rings Burlingame creates.
"I look for the boards with
the best color,"he said. He then
drills into them with a hole saw,
and from there, through various
woodworking techniques, crafts
unique, stunning and terrifically
artistic rings sized to fit women
and men.
After seeing how well the
ringswere received, Burlingame
tried his hand at earrings,creat-
ing an array of cool and clever
shapes, the colors of which sim-
ply pop thanks to Burlingame's
skills and an appropriate touch
of varnish.
While his new jewelry is cer-
tainly proving popular, it isn't
Burlingame's only focus in his
drive to find new uses for old
skateboards. Along with the
aforementioned rack, he has
created a rack for a friend' s
bow and arrows, as well as ash-
trays, slingshots, a special shelf
for beer growlers and even a
rack to hold sunglasses.
He is currently at work mak-
ing bracelets , necklaces and
even special beads that can be
woven into a person 's dread-
locks. He's even contemplating
making a beach chair out of old
boards.
"The future is a hard thing
to predict ,"he said. "I would be
looking to do anything as long
as I enjoy it."
So where does Burlingame
get all of the broken skate-
boards? Mostly from his own
collection.
"A lot of them are mine," he
said. "I broke three boards last
month."
He got lucky when one cus-
tomer offered him a whole box
of broken boards in exchange
for a custom ring.The quality of
a skateboard matters, he said.
"As long as I'm getting a real
skateboard from someone and
not a toy, it's good," he said ,
adding that he especially likes
boards made from Canadian
hard rock maple. "Ironically
there 's a company called 'Real
Skateboards ' that have the best
colors."
Skateboarding, Burlingame
said , is something he picked up
as a kid.
"It was love at first sight,"he
said. "I knew that was what I
wanted to do."
While he contemplated going
pro at one point , he never made
the big move toward such a
career, but is now thrilled at his
ability to combine the sport he
loves with a hobby that fulfills
him and brings joy to others.
"My favorite thing is to see
how well received it is," Burl-
ingame said of his work. "The
overall reception has been noth-
ing but positive."
He is deeply appreciat ive for
the support.
People are also suggesting
some fun ideas for Burlingame
to try out. Not too long ago he
crafted model guitar picks as a
gift , and even made the box out
of a skateboard.
His biggest score to date may
be still to come. Burlingame
fashioned a bow tie out of an
old board and brought it with
him when he went to see The
Roots , where he had a back-
stage pass. While backstage ,
he passed along the bow tie to
someone with connections to
the band , in hopes that it would
find its way to Ahmir "Quest-
love " Thompson , the group 's
drummer.
"I'm still hoping I'll see it on
TV one of these days," Burl-
ingame said.
In the meantime, he's busy
working on new designs for Ply
Product .
"It's a never-ending thing,"he
said. "There are endless possi-
bilities."
Look for Ply Product pieces
at The Boarding House on Main
Street in Hyannis and on Insta-
gram at ply product.
Upcycling,board style
FIND YOUR IDEAL SPACE, YOUR PERFECT PLACE AT
WWW.ROBERTPAUL.COM
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WITH DOCK ON PRINCE COVE MAJESTIC CONTEMPORARY CAPE
Marstons Mills, $1,995,000 Barnstable, $999,900
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IN THE HEART OF CENTERVILLE CRANBERRY KNOLL 3BR TOWN HOUSE
Centerville, $489,000 - JUST LISTED! Dennis, $249,000 - NEW PRICE!
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BAYSIDE MARKET CENTER [
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O ROBERT PAUL LUXURY
3256 Mam Street | Barnstable
Jfl/ pRO PERTIES ?O
T
°
508.362.1414
0TheChildren
's College
'T
j \ CapeCodCommunity College
® C West Barnstable Preschool Now Enrolling!
Small friendly center with low ratios
and professional staff
$45 a day or $30 for mornings
Vouchers accepted and monthly discounts offered
(508) 775-0005
Celebrating
75 Years of
Service to
Our Community
259 Pine Street
Centerville, MA 02632
Auto • Home • Commercial
www.obrienscentervilleinsurance.com
BUSINESS BRIEFS
Santa'saliveandwell!
This year's"Stuff-A-Bus"just
broke last year's record for toys
collected for the Marine Corps'
Toysfor Totsprogram. A total
of 31,844 toys were stuffed in
the bus,beating the 2013 total
of 23,466. Cape Cod public
safety agencies participating
in the program donated 16,069
toys, or a little more than half
the grand total.
*•*!
SingleStreamarrives
indieMills
Beginning in January,the
town's Marstons MillsTransfer
Station will make recycling eas-
ier.Customers no longer have
to separate their recyclables but
may combine them for disposal.
Residents who use the station
for recyclingonly are required
to have a"recyclingonly"
sticker on their windshields.
These are free of charge for
residents and residential prop-
erty owners, and obtainable at
the Transfer Station office.
Provincetown
awardsgrants
The Provincetown Cultural
Council has awarded 10grants
totalingjust under $6,000 for
cultural programs in that area.
Recipients include: Center for
Coastal Studies; Broadsided
Press;Truro Center for the Arts/
Castle Hill; PeregrineTheatre
Ensemble; Cape Cod African
Dance & Drum; Rise and Shine
(Cultural Center of Cape Cod);
Cape Cod Chamber Music
Festival;ProvincetownTheater
Foundation; Cape Cod Festival
of Arab and Middle Eastern
Cinema; Provincetown Film
Society.
Applications for fall 2015 are
available at www.masscultural-
council.org.
Recyclethat tree!
Boy ScoutTroop 54 of Cen-
terville will pick up your natu-
ral holiday trees and wreaths
for recyclingon Saturdays,Jan.
3 and 10. Please include your
name and address and any spe-
cific request. A $10 donation is
requested at pickup. Confirma-
tion emails will be sent to all.
Visit:Troop54christmasTreeP-
ickUp@gmail.com.
By David Augustinho
Recently the Cape &
Islands Workforce
Investment Board
hosted an information
session with the region's
economic development prac-
titioners.Why the heck did
we do that? And what did we
talk about?
Well, there are a number of
reasons why workforce devel-
opment professionals and
economic development pro-
fessionals need to be work-
ing together. And all of the
reasons relate to their shared
mission to assist businesses to
grow and prosper.
I worked as an economic
developer for a few years in
the late 1990s.During that
time I noticed a shift in the
fccus of businesses that were
relocating to the southeastern
Massachusetts region. At one
time all that the businesses
cared about was what kind of
financial incentive package
the local communitywas will-
ing to put on the table.
Wewould work with the
state to develop exoticTax
Increment Financing deals
that would abate large por-
tions of the businesses'future
tax obligations. Sometimes we
would offer deals that would
cut a company's tax burden
(why do we commonly call a
tax obligation a burden? Just
sayin') for up to 20 years into
the future.
And believe me, the first
thing a company that was
considering relocating or
growingwould ask an office
of economic development was,
"What's the tax package look
like?"
But then a fumrything hap-
pened, and I don't know of
any precipitating event, any
smoking gun that signaled
the change, but all of a sud-
den companies started asking
first ,"What is the labor force
like?"
Now I know that the reason
was bottom line related. Com-
panies realized that without
a compatible workforce,the
chances that they would be
successful and make money
were slim.
Jim Collins authored a book
around this time, titled"Good
to Great."In the book he spoke
about the increasing need for
acquiring human resources
that matched exactly with the
organization and processes
of the company.He went even
further to say that acquiring
the proper talent was just the
beginning,and that a dynamic
growing company had to have
the right people in the right
jobs in order to perform at the
highest level.
Whatever the reasons, it
is now clear that economic
development and workforce
development are critical and
complimentary players, as
communities seek to bolster
the growth of businesses
withintheir regions. And
today,in most places, each
entity recognizes the need to
work together.
So what did we talk about
withthe economic develop-
ment professionals on the
Cape and Islands?
Well, we provided a detailed
list of programs and practices
that the investment board
and our Career Opportunities
Center can provide to existing
or new businesses.We spoke
about how the center can
provide space and personnel
to assist with hiring events
on behalf of companies. How
we can prescreen applicants
and refer qualified employ-
ees, based on the businesses
criteria, for free. Even some
of the economic development
professionals were surprised
to learn that we can provide
a range of services to new or
existing businesses for free.
Additionally, the investment
board provided each attend-
ing economic development
professional with a detailed
labor market analysis of his
or her community.Whether
the individuals were repre-
senting towns, regions (Lower
Cape and Barnstable County,
for example) or the islands,
we were able to individualize
a data package for them.
Wealso presented informa-
tion about the state'sWork-
force Training Fund Program,
which provides matching
grants to businesses to train
their employees and help
businesses to grow.
Convening groups of busi-
nesses, or in this case plan-
ners who can help businesses,
is an important activity that a
workforce board provides in
a region.
Our goal in meeting with
the region's economic devel-
opment professionals was to
increase their awareness of a
number of tools that the work-
force development system can
provide to assist them in their
work to help businesses grow
and provide more opportunity
to the workers in our region.
Businesspartners