During his college years, Kenneth Marx of Helena, Montana worked at a gas station. That's where he started making chess pieces out of discarded spark plugs.
''I thought that there’s got to be something we can do with these instead of just throwing them away,'' he said.
Not exactly sure where the idea came from, Marx does recall manufacturing a few sets for his friends. As it turned out, they were hits. Now retired, he decided to renew the hobby.
Marx sells his spark plug chess pieces at $275 a set both from his home and through his website ChessCreations.com. He has made 23 of them so far. Each one is unique and requires about 20 hours of labour. Buyers can even customize their set, for example with American-brand spark plugs vs. German-brand spark plugs.
''I don’t plan on making a fortune on this,'' Marx said. For him, it's more about tapping into his creativity and making a small favour to Mother Nature in an original way.
Source: Helena IR
''I thought that there’s got to be something we can do with these instead of just throwing them away,'' he said.
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| Photo: ChessCreations.com |
Not exactly sure where the idea came from, Marx does recall manufacturing a few sets for his friends. As it turned out, they were hits. Now retired, he decided to renew the hobby.
Marx sells his spark plug chess pieces at $275 a set both from his home and through his website ChessCreations.com. He has made 23 of them so far. Each one is unique and requires about 20 hours of labour. Buyers can even customize their set, for example with American-brand spark plugs vs. German-brand spark plugs.
''I don’t plan on making a fortune on this,'' Marx said. For him, it's more about tapping into his creativity and making a small favour to Mother Nature in an original way.
Source: Helena IR