Artist Steve Gerberich, an area native with a national reputation for his mechanical creations, was back in Des Moines last week making Santa's elves look lazy.

His "Candy Cane Factory" and "The Garbage Arbor" are at A Okay Antiques, 124 Fifth St., West Des Moines, and on the Waukee Triangle, off Sixth Street in Waukee.

The ingenious "Candy Cane Factory" is a clever Christmas machine featured in the window of the Valley Junction antiques shop. It also has been in the windows of the Museum of Folk Art in New York.

Gerberich's 30-foot tree, "The Garbage Arbor," is in Waukee's town center. For this project, Gerberich invited members of the community to decorate the tree with their trash. Empty liquid detergent containers, empty Tidy Cats litter containers and Aquafina bottles comprise the impressive (and not "trashy" at all) display on the downtown Christmas tree. It's a monument to everyday life — and Christmas, of course.

He also has work in Times Square and the Buffalo (N.Y.) Museum of Science.