Artist David Kemp makes art from found objects, particularly discarded remnants of the mining industry in his area, on the Tinner's Coast in Cornwall. Twenty years ago, he was alerted about a mountain of old boots that were to be buried, so he salvaged them.
A friend, working on the maintenance staff at Geevor ,watched a mechanical digger burying a pile of redundant miners boots , & gave me a shout,I drove over & filled my pickup with the discarded boots, not knowing what I might do with them.
This discarded footwear was to become THE HOUNDS OF GEEVOR
"Relics of a vast subterranean workforce that rarely saw the light of day, each of these Hounds fed up to three & a half families(seven boots per dog).Released from their underground labours, they now wander the clifftops, looking for a proper job"
The hounds were so popular that Kemp was commissioned to cast them in bronze for a more durable display in downtown Redruth. And Kemp is still making dogs out of boots. See more pictures of the hounds at Kemp's blog. Link -via Arbroath