A Harold Hill artist has created pieces of art from recycled Coke cans to raise money for the Royal British Legion in Collier Row.

Romford Recorder: Geoff Moss has made some artwork out of recycled coke cans that he is going to auction at the RBL in Collier Row on Remembrance Sunday.Geoff Moss has made some artwork out of recycled coke cans that he is going to auction at the RBL in Collier Row on Remembrance Sunday. (Image: Archant)

Geoff Moss, 50, was fed up of seeing his work colleague throwing away cans everyday, so instead decided to do something creative with them.

He spent around 40 hours creating a tin wreath that has been framed, and 30 hours creating a 3D frame filled with poppies.

Geoff from Tring Close, has a close affiliation with the armed forces, as his dad, George Moss, and his three uncles all spent time in the navy, army and the paratroopers.

His dad passed away when he was 12, but what he remembers about his military career was that he spent his last three years stationed in India, because he has photos of him outside the Taj Mahal.

Romford Recorder: Geoff Moss has made some artwork out of recycled coke cans that he is going to auction at the RBL in Collier Row on Remembrance Sunday.Geoff Moss has made some artwork out of recycled coke cans that he is going to auction at the RBL in Collier Row on Remembrance Sunday. (Image: Archant)

George was one of five brothers, four of which fought for their country.

His eldest brother Joseph was in the army, second oldest, Henry was in the navy and Haurice was in the paratroopers.

And their father, Joseph O-Mossey also fought in the First World War.

The care home manager has been spending his spare time creating the pieces of art, and is hoping that they are able to raise some money for the Poppy Appeal.

It hasn’t been easy to use the hundreds of Coke cans to create the art though, and he said that he even had to use his wife’s iron to try and get the tin to stay in shape.

He said: “It always got back to its original shape, it’s not the easiest thing to work with, so I used the iron to get the best shape possible.

“I like creating extremely detailed pieces of art, and that’s what these are.”

All of the poppies in the wreath vary from 6-8 millimetres in size up to around 10 millimetres, and require hours of intricate craftsmanship to get them in shape.

To keep them all together Geoff has used copper wire, rather than glue, which has made it even more difficult.

But he is hoping when they are auctioned at the Collier Row RBL on Sunday afternoon they will raise enough money to make the hard work worth it.

He said: “I’ve spent a long time putting them together, but it’s nothing in comparison to what these men gave when fighting for their country.

“I firmly believe that they’re going out and putting their lives on the line, and we should support them in any way we can.

“I think that to be a solider it’s a vocation, it’s not just a job.

“I think that 99 per cent do it out of a feeling of belief as the soldiers did in both the World Wars.”