For Baltimoreans, the appearance of bright yellow salt boxes on street corners means one thing: winter is here. For anyone unfamiliar with them, the wooden salt boxes get installed every year in the fall and are filled with salt that residents can use to melt the ice on driveways and sidewalks. While they’re usually collected again in the spring, 2020 came and went with the boxes still in place. Artist Juliet Ames decided to use these boxes as an opportunity to get creative.
As owner of the Broken Plate Co., Ames spends her days breaking dishes, vases, wedding china and more and turning the shards into original art pieces and custom jewelry. When she saw that a salt box on Roland Avenue and 36th Street needed a little sprucing up, she put her skills to work and cut letters from recycled china to spell “Salt Box.” Ames affixed the pieces to a yellow plywood panel and installed it on the front of the box in December 2020.
She tweeted a picture of the newly decorated salt box and was surprised to get a response from the Baltimore City Department of Transportation commending her for her creativity and calling other artists to get in on the fun.
Since then, new salt box art has popped up all over the city. Designs have included the NaCL chemical formula for salt, Veruca Salt from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” a Ouija board, the Baltimore Ravens logo; “salt box” spelled out in glitter and an image of Kobe Bryant to honor the late basketball player.
Ames has also continued creating original designs and has so far decorated 16 salt boxes. To help pay for supplies, she’s offering sticker fun packs featuring a salt box sticker, a F*CK postcard and a Broken Plate magnet or sticker for $6.
For anyone who wants to participate in the salt box project, visit ibreakplates.com for supply recommendations and installation instructions. If you need inspiration or help finding a salt box to adopt, check out Robert Atkinson’s map of all the known salt boxes and art boxes by clicking here.
Use #saltboxart on Instagram so that Ames and others can see your original creations.
To keep up with Ames and her work at The Broken Plate Co., follow her on Instagram @thebrokenplate_jules.
Explore more examples of Juliet Ames’ salt box art below:
