Issuing an artistic challenge to his industrial design students at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., metal artist and industrial design professor Arunas Oslapas took it up himself. “I asked them to intercept garbage and make something from it—and I’d do the same,” he says. Oslapas, whose family is originally from Lithuania, was born in New York City. His inclination toward industrial design was evident early on. “As a little kid, I’d make pushcarts and go-carts,” he says. “Once I tried to make a sewing machine out of wood.” After receiving a B.F.A. in professional design from Montana State University and an M.F.A. in industrial design from the University of Illinois, he worked in product design and space planning before moving to the Pacific Northwest.