Cyclist Barnaby Wickham has collected more than 700 lost hubcaps, mostly on bike rides around Baltimore. They have inspired a quest to turn litter into art, including Christmas wreaths, a giant fish and a large head of Snoopy. It's a hobby that developed nearly two years ago from his love of cycling and the joy of making something out of the junk he has collected. The 54-year-old says he can’t quite explain it, but one day while cycling in early 2024 he decided to bring home a lost hubcap. Since then, he has started stringing hubcaps he comes across to his backpack. “I keep track of them, and I have a Google map,” he said. “I pin locations where I find each of them.” Others in his community who have taken an interest in his projects let him know when they see hubcaps by the road. Now, Wickham keeps a list of them that he refers to as “hubcaps in the wild.” He wants to do the collecting himself because that's part of the joy of collecting. Wickham also gets a hand from his wife, Kate, who helps hold materials during construction and offers opinions. Wickham, who works in marketing for a defense technology company, stores his finds in his garage and works in his front yard. He uses expanded metal as a framework, with sheet metal with holes and wiring to hold the sheets in place. He uses zip ties to link the hubcaps on the sheet metal. His works aren’t small either. The head of Snoopy is 16 feet tall and about 21 feet wide. Last year, he donated two Christmas wreaths he made to the city and to a nonprofit organization. Wickham says his hobby is quite the conversation starter. “It’s just something people love to talk about,” he said.
