Wyandotte Man Gives Old Objects New Life

A Wyandotte man is creating stylish and functional art with the most unlikely ingredients–shipping tubes and secondhand purses.

Leonard Bankhead, who sells his products online, said his creative venture has simple roots.

“I’m a huge sunglass fanatic,” he said.

In order to protect his treasured glasses from getting lost or broken, Bankhead said, he started storing them in shipping tubes that contained posters or pieces of art shipped through the mail.

“That’s kind of boring and plain, so I thought to start decorating them,” he said.

His initial inspiration came while watching a purse designer on TV.

“Bing! The little light bulb went off,” Bankhead said. “That’s when I started getting the secondhand and vintage purses.”

Today, Bankhead takes shipping tubes and their plastic caps and covers them with everything from comics to magazine pictures to pieces of cut-up purses found in thrift stores.

“They’re all functional,” he said. “They’re tough. … They’re crush-proof. So you can toss them around (and) flip them around.”

People can store a variety of small objects in them, including glasses, keys or an iPod.  

“It’s kind of evolving past sunglasses to multi-functioning things, and I think that’s actually pretty cool,” Bankhead said.

He said people find his cases especially useful while traveling through airports. Instead of travelers having to scramble to collect their jewelry, phones and keys from a bin after being scanned, they simply put the objects in one of Bankhead’s cases and send the whole thing through the scanner.

“(Airport workers) can throw it around, toss it around, and it won’t break,” Bankhead said.

The designer has even created cases made out of stuffed animals for children who need a safe place to keep their small toys.

Len’s Case is the latest in a series of artistic ventures for Bankhead.

“I’ve always been kind of an artist,” he said.

In addition to being interested in drawing and painting in school, Bankhead also has experience as a photographer and cameraman. He worked as the producer of GM television, but after being laid off two years ago, decided it was time for a change.

“I really wanted to spend the time doing something that had my name on it,” he said.

When searching for materials to use at local goodwill and consignment shops, Bankhead said, he looks at a purse’s price, color, material and texture.

“Some pieces talk to you,” he said. “You see them, and then you can see what they could be. For the most part, I just look for something that’s going to catch my eye. Something that’s going to stand out, not the traditional black patent leather purse or something like that.”

Bankhead, who initially started making the cases more than 10 years ago, said it can take anywhere from a couple of days to a month to create a case, depending on its complexity. Most take about a week or two, he said. They sell for anywhere between $20-80.

“I do it because I like it,” he said. “It’s creative, it’s something most people have never seen before and it’s functional. I like things that are fun, but they have to be functional.” 

For more information, contact Bankhead at 734-282-7933 or lenwesbank@hotmail.com.