HER portraits will have an instant ring of familiarity to many – and not just because of who they represent.

For Jane Perkins is a master of the Avant-garbage school of art, using everyday rubbish to create her works.

Each piece is made up of thousands of bits of bric-a-brac salvaged from recycling centres which are then carefully glued into place to make the pictures.

Among those immortalised in refuse are US President Barak Obama, whose nose, on closer inspection, is made up of a shark tooth and a doll’s head. He is joined by his wife Michelle Obama whose nostrils are formed by the hands of an Action Man figure.

Others in the set include Nelson Mandela who is made from thousands of beads, buttons and broken cracker toys.

And her portrait of the Queen uses broken jewellery and a tiny dolls’ house fork in her tiara. While Boris Johnson's wild hair is composed of tiny plastic skeletons and broken shells.

The former nurse, from Kenton, Devon, has recently completed her latest portrait that of footballer David Beckham, which includes a pair of miniature plastic football boots in its make-up.

Jane, 51, said she first got the idea while making jewellery from recycled materials.

She said: “I had amassed all this stuff which was far too big for using as brooches so I started working on portraits.

“The first one I did was of a friend and then I wanted to do one of someone people would know, so I did the Queen.

 “I wanted to do something that was a bit quirky and that would make people smile. I want people to look at them from a distance and then get up close.”

The mother-of-two who is married to John, a GP, said that at first her husband did not think much of the idea.

She said: “He thought I had lost the plot but since seeing people’s reaction to them he’s coming around.

“He’s very tolerant which is just as well because I’ve got a room covered in my various bits of tat.”

Each work sells for £950 and takes up to 20 hours to assemble plus considerably more time sourcing the right colours. And two of them have already won awards at local exhibitions around the country.

She said: “I work from photographs as a guide and I stick the pieces on to the canvas with a glue gun, I have to keep stepping back to get a perspective on how the work is progressing.

“When it’s finished and I’m happy with the finished piece I cover it with a strong glue to make it more robust.”

She now plans to make more with Queen Elizabeth I, Nigella Lawson and Roger Federer next on her list.

She added: “I’m not doing it to make a statement about the environment but since I started you realise how much we are filling the world with little bits of tat.”

She is exhibiting some of her portraits during Devon Open Studios, until September 20, at The Café in Fore Street, Topsham.