Become a hardware store savant

How old were you when you learned these hardware staples' names'?

It happens to the best of us: you embark on a mundane home repair, only to realize that there is a broken thing in need of replacement. But, alas, you don’t know the name of said item. Spare yourself the embarrassment of having to show the hardware store clerk a clumsy smartphone picture of the wretched piece itself. After reading this article, you will be able to walk into the store and order a wing nut or an escutcheon with the confidence of a seasoned contractor.

A toggle bolt is a fastener designed for hollow walls such as drywall. Its secret weapon is a pair of spring-loaded wings that fold to fit through a hole and then expand behind the wall, spreading the load over a larger area.

The word toggle comes from an older mechanical term for a pivoting or folding device. The name describes exactly what the wings do: they change position after passing through the wall. As drywall construction became widespread during the twentieth century, toggle bolts became a common household fastener.

A wing nut is probably one of the easiest hardware names to understand. Instead of a standard hexagonal shape, it has two projections that resemble wings, allowing it to be tightened or loosened by hand. You might find it located under the toilet tank.

The design became popular wherever quick adjustments were needed without tools. You’ll find wing nuts on equipment, musical stands, machinery, and countless household items. Their name is purely visual, based on the shape that makes them so convenient.

Among hardware terms, escutcheon sounds especially mysterious, right? It refers to the decorative or protective plate surrounding a keyhole, pipe opening, or door fixture.

The word originally referred to a shield used in heraldry. Over time, the term was applied to hardware because the plate "shielded" or covered an opening. Although most people encounter escutcheons regularly, almost nobody realizes that they are using a word with medieval roots.

The carriage bolt earned its name from the horse-drawn carriage era. Builders needed a fastener that could secure wooden components without leaving a protruding head that might snag clothing, cargo, or harnesses. You might find one on an outdoor deck.

Its smooth, rounded head and square neck solved the problem. The square section bites into wood and prevents the bolt from turning while the nut is tightened. Even though carriages largely disappeared long ago, the name remains in use today.

A lag screw is a heavy-duty fastener commonly used in timber construction. It looks like a giant screw but is often tightened with a wrench because of its large hexagonal head. It can usually be found on TV wall mounts.

The origin of the word lag is uncertain, but it likely derives from an older term associated with large wooden structural members. The name reflects the fastener’s traditional role in securing heavy timbers for buildings, bridges, docks, and other major structures.

Sometimes hardware names are exactly what they seem. An S-hook is simply a hook shaped like, you guessed it, the letter S. You might recognize it from kitchen pot racks.

Its design has existed for centuries because of its simplicity and usefulness. One end can attach to a support while the other holds an object. From hanging pots and tools to organizing workshops and warehouses, the S-hook remains one of the most versatile pieces of hardware ever created.

Aside from being a common name, many people assume that "molly" describes a type of fastener. It began as a trademark. In 1934, inventor George Frederick Croessant patented an improved hollow-wall anchor sold under the name MOLLY. Today, it can be seen in curtain rod brackets.

The product became so successful that the brand name gradually turned into a generic term. Today, countless people use "molly bolt" to describe expandable wall anchors, even when they are not made by the original manufacturer.

The purpose of a lock washer is built directly into its name. It is designed to help prevent a fastener from loosening because of vibration or movement. It can often be found in washing machines and dryers.

As automobiles, railroads, and industrial machinery became more common during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, engineers needed better ways to keep bolts secure. Lock washers became one of the simplest solutions, helping assemblies stay tight under demanding conditions.

A nyloc nut contains a nylon insert that grips the bolt’s threads. This extra friction helps keep the nut from backing off when subjected to vibration. It can be found in skateboards and roller skates.

The name combines two words: nylon and lock. Like many successful engineering products, the term eventually became familiar beyond the company that originally promoted it. Today, nyloc nuts are widely used in automotive, aerospace, and industrial applications.

This acorn nut is not the kind that grows on oaks. An acorn nut bolt features a rounded, closed end that covers the exposed tip of a bolt. Viewed from the side, the shape somewhat resembles the acorn that grows on trees.

The design serves both practical and aesthetic purposes. It protects people from sharp threads while helping shield the bold from dirt and moisture. That’s why acorn nuts are often found on furniture, bicycles, playground equipment, and ornamental metalwork.

A draw bolt works by pulling two parts tightly together. Unlike a standard bolt-and-nut combination, it often functions as a latch that creates tension when closed.

The name comes directly from the verb draw, meaning to pull. Draw bolts are commonly used on toolboxes, storage cases, industrial cabinets, and equipment enclosures where a secure, tight closure is needed.

A T-nut, also known as a tee nut, gets its name from its shape. Viewed from the side, its threaded barrel and flange resemble the letter T.

The design allows a bolt to be inserted from one side of a wooden panel, while the T-nut anchors itself from the other. T-nuts are especially common in furniture, speaker cabinets, climbing walls, and other products that require strong threaded connections in wood.

Creative repurposing

From trash to burnt toast: 12 works of art made with bizarre materials

Image: Maryam Tello

They say that creativity is all about finding opportunities where others don’t. The artists on this list must have taken that definition very literally because they all use highly unconventional media to create their work. From Post-it notes and stamps to fruit and trash, these 12 artistic visionaries are game for any kind of everyday material. Keep reading to learn more about them!

Image: Ali Bakhtiari

Is "Post Pop Art" a thing? This artist from Staffordshire, England, seems to think so! Pete Mason combines pop art and graphic design to create portraits of famous people out of recycled postage stamps. He sorts the stamps by design, color, and pattern and then applies them to a previously sketched canvas. Each of Mason’s pieces, which include portraits of Princess Diana and Martin Luther King, takes up to 20,000 stamps.

Image: CordMediaDigitalServices

Don't throw away that burnt slice of toast; you can make art with it! Or at least that's what New Zealand artist Maurice Bennett did. Using thousands of pieces of toasted bread, burnt to varying degrees, he created billboard-sized mosaic portraits of well-known personalities, from Elvis Presley to the Mona Lisa. Bennett preferred to use white bread, but sometimes experimented with multi-grain to achieve different shades. Clever, huh?

Image: Chris Blonk

Who would have thought that junk mail could be turned into something beautiful? Well, a New York-born artist decided it was time to take action. A pioneer of the Green Fine Art movement, Sandhi Schimmel creates mosaic pictures out of all kinds of unusual materials, from junk mail to catalogs and old greeting cards. She was first inspired by a process called "upcycling," which she discovered while in Venice, Italy. Most of her artworks are portraits, like a piece featuring Madonna called "All American Blonde" and a re-creation of the famous The Birth of Venus.

Image: Era Saputera

Franz Spohn is a multifaceted artist based in Pennsylvania. He’s a sculptor, illustrator, art professor, and even TV host! For the past 25 years, he has created over 200 mosaic murals made from plastic tubes filled with hundreds of colorful gumballs. His pieces usually portray popular icons like Barack Obama and Rosa Parks. Spohn’s masterpieces have been exhibited in several museums around the world. Talk about eye candy!

Image: Arnór Ingi Júlíusson

Who said you had to be good at drawing to be an artist? A 20-year-old art student from Leavenworth, Washington, created a 25-foot-high portrait of Jimi Hendrix made from more than 8500 Bicycle playing cards. With the help of a computer program, David Alvarez mapped and divided a picture of the great American musician into parts. After deciding where each colored playing card would go, he meticulously placed them on a styrofoam board. He completed his masterpiece in just 21 hours!

Image: Sahand Babali

Did the world need another Mona Lisa? Probably not, but this version is noteworthy because of the materials used to create it. In 2006, a group of computer engineers presented a re-creation of da Vinci's masterpiece made out of random computer parts at an art exhibition in Beijing, China. To make this collage, they used computer chips, circuits, and old motherboards. This piece of "geek art," titled "Technology Smiling," fascinated audiences. What do you think the Italian Renaissance artist would think of it?

Image: Georg Eiermann

Those sticker labels that come on fruits and vegetables are sometimes so cute that you feel bad throwing them away. Barry Snyder of Erie, Colorado, probably wanted to prevent these design gems from going to waste when he came up with the idea of creating his amazing mosaic artworks. He uses around 4,000 labels for each of his four-square-foot creations. People even send him stickers from all over the world, so he doesn’t run out. His pieces are so popular that they can sell for up to $10,000. Who would have thought that something destined to become trash could be so lucrative?

Image: Claudio Schwarz

British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster use different objects and materials, mostly trash, to create people and animal shadows. They arrange the objects in such a way that, when light is projected onto them, a recognizable silhouette can be seen on the wall. They have even managed to create identifiable portraits! For their contributions to British contemporary art, Noble and Webster received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University in 2009.

Image: Kampus Production

Inspired by the Y2K computer scare in 2000, American artist Scott Blake began creating artworks out of bar codes. He started with circles and squares and soon switched to designing digital portraits of icons such as Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, and Marilyn Monroe in Photoshop. Many of his pieces are interactive; if scanned with a cell phone, you can hear Blake’s subjects telling their stories.

Image: Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto

Since 1988, artist Helge Lundstrom and his daughter Emma Karp have been creating apple mosaics for the annual Kivik Apple Festival. Known for being an important fruit supplier in Sweden, this town celebrates the end of the harvest with these works of art as its centerpiece. Each piece is made from up to 75,000 apples of different varieties, from bright green Granny Smiths to duo-toned McIntoshes. What do you think of this juicy approach to art?

Image: Michael Maasen

This particular material is as bizarre as it is abstract. Yet, it still achieves impressive results. Iranian artist Hamid Naderi generates digital images from mathematical formulas. How does he do it? He finds the mathematical equation that corresponds to each color he wants to represent in a pixel. Through his work, Naderi proves that math doesn't have to be boring; it can be a vehicle for creating art and beauty.

Image: Kier in Sight Archives

The Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville, Utah, holds several world records—probably more than any other school in the country! Many of their record-breaking attempts were even featured in the Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. One of its most incredible feats so far was creating the world’s largest Post-it note mosaic. In 2009, 151 students created a 60-by-40-foot work of art using 38,400 colorful sticky notes. The construction took three hours, and after the event, the Post-it notes were recycled.