With just glue, a pair of scissors and cardboard, Robin Bowman, 74, creates cars, trucks, buses and CD clocks at home.
“I needed a project for school a few weeks ago and asked my uncle to help,” said his nephew, Magedien Ely, 11. “It was his idea to create a car from cardboard. It’s really fascinating to watch him make these cardboard cars.”
Mr Bowman lives with his family in Tafelsig where his creations come to life. He retired at the age of 72 in 2016, having previously worked as a motor mechanic. “There were days where I would need to position myself at the bottom of a car at work, resting the heavy equipment on my chest. I decided to stop doing motor mechanics as it was affecting my health,” he told the Plainsman.
Mr Bowman started making the cardboard vehicles earlier this year.
And Cardies approached him about selling his CD clocks in their stores.
“I was so ecstatic to hear that my handiwork will go on the shelf at Cardies,” he said.
“At my age, I didn’t think it would happen. My former boss, Grant George from Brats Electricity sent some of my creations to England.”
But things were not always good and Mr Bowman had had to endure some tough times.
“For a month I slept in my car at a garage. It was not the best experience but it taught me some good lessons.
“My family came to the rescue and took me into their home and nurtured me there. I might be an older man, but there’s more to life than sitting at home doing nothing,” he said.
Now Mr Bowman is keen to work with other older people in and around his community so that they too have something to do in their spare time.
“When you’re retired there’s not much to do at home. I used to come home, make a sandwich, drink coffee and watch TV all day. I don’t want to be doing that forever. My little nephew helped me explore other areas of things to do,” said Mr Bowman.
As soon as he has made enough, he said, he wants to start selling his cardboard vehicles to the community.
