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February 25, 2017 by tomdalzell

DIY Quirk – Ohmega Salvage

 

Quirky Berkeley 11-10-2015

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017

The gate to Ohmega Salvage at 2403 San Pablo is dominated by two huge Leslie Safarik joyous women ceramic statues which were formerly owned by Danielle Steel, and an early 1950s Jeep Willy’s wagon.

Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif. is seen on January 30th, 2017.

And a peace sign. Berkeley!

Ohmega Salvage came into being in ,1974 in the Flight Bar at the San Francisco International Airport. Victor “Vito” Lab and Bob Ford, signed partnership papers to buy and deconstruct a large building at the Oakland Naval Supply facility.  In that first job they recycled thousands of board feet of lumber which they sold to DIYers and architects.

Ohmega initially bounced around in South San Francisco and San Francisco until moving to Berkeley in the summer of 1974. There was a big hippie vibe, and counterculture icons such as Wavy Gravy and John Fogerty were friends and customers.  Vito Lab believed in Gaia theory, that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.  Lab’s 2013 obituary gives a sense of him.

Lab20130224.tif_20130220

Photo: Legacy.com

In 1986, Steve Drobinsky purchased the business from Vito and continued the tradition of salvaging architectural materials.

Photo: Berkeleyside

Photo: Berkeleyside

He died in 2012, after which his wife Catherine took over the business.  For a more complete history of Ohmega and some cool archival photos, see Ohmega’s website.

Ohmega sells bath and plumbing fixtures, decorative accessories, architectural elements, chalk paint, doors, fireplace mantels, furniture, hardware, industrial and vintage oddities, ironwork, gates, lighting, ornamental plaster, and windows and glass.

It is mostly the industrial and vintage oddities that rock quirky, but even the hardware can get its quirk on:

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Ditto with the doors and windows.  The rows and rows and them create a certain quirky effect.  I was especially impressed with the walls of bathroom cabinet mirrors:

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017

It is in the industrial and vintage oddities department that the greatest opportunity for DIY quirk is to be found.

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017

This doll takes us into the Uncanny Valley.  Scary!  Quirky!

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017 A performance space.

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017
Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif. is seen on January 30th, 2017.Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017

There was also a library card catalog cabinet for sale, something that somebody somewhere would love.  I spent the summer of 1965  of my youth typing library index cards for my school library.  The librarian directing and inspiring us was Anthony Wayne Ridgeway.  On the radio ALL THE TIME that summer – “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, the Four Tops with “I Can’t Help Myself” and “It’s The Same Old Song,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds, “What the World Needs Now is Love” by Jackie DeShannon, “You Were on My Mind” by the We Five, and “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher.  I looked at that card catalog cabinet at Ohmega and heard those songs on an AM low-fi car radio – hot and humid and green and lush Philadelphia summer and I’m 14 and life is opening up in front of me.

When I see the “oddities” at Ohmega I imagine a room, a big room, with a lot of them, and with art from quirky artists.  A room to celebrate creativity and quirkiness.  A gallery?  An incubator (whatever that is)?  Why not?  Where?  I don’t know.  How?  I don’t know.  But it would be fine.

Room or no room, Ohmega is PERFECT for DIY quirk.  Quirk out your lawn or house.  One stop shopping.

I asked my friend about the photos.  He was especially interested in the small white car.  He’d like to go to Ohmega and take a look at it.  It does not fit with his current Danish modern theme, but you never know what changes can be made.

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