You don't have to look very far before you find insulators that have been crackled, stained, painted or drilled . Usually it is a common insulator and no one really cares, but even so there are those who think it's wrong.

Here I am. I dismantled the barn that went with my old house, circa 1842. Amongst all the rubble were dozens of these three inch metal balls, some in better shape than others. I've referred to them as cannon balls for years, until I measured one and found it was slightly larger than three inch, by 1/8 to be exact. So I guess I can't call them cannon balls anymore. But even before I made that discovery, I found I could not sell them. At five lbs each postage just was too much. So I started using them in small sculptures. Maybe they are a valuable antique but like the average person who has an insulator and decides to crackle it, I dunno any better. Among the many creatures I have been making there are these. Recently I couldn't resist adding 'The Ugly Duckling' to the flock. It is insulator related in a way. The bill is the clamp used on a line post insulator while the feet are part of a 100 yr old clamp used to prevent railway track creapage.