BRUNSWICK — Boxes, pails and bins of pottery, glass, children’s toys and scraps are piled up in Rick Carney’s Brunswick garage and studio at his home on Mere Point. It’s a collection that the 66-year-old treasure-hunting artist has amassed over more than three decades diving in the waters of Maine.

Glass items like 19th-century “kidney and liver cure” bottles become sea glass lampshades; salvaged porcelain children’s dolls, metal figurines and discarded household items become the focal point of mosaics.

“It’s been a vast adventure, finding other people’s things,” Carney said.

Carney said he has always dug up old things and is especially drawn to anything from the mid-1800s or earlier. Getting certified to dive was another way to find other people’s forgotten treasures, he said.

“I was into [treasure hunting] when I was 7 years old,” Carney said.

Carney retired from his business repairing copiers about 10 years ago and devoted his full-time attention to his art. His boat bears the name “Finders Keepers” and he travels with both an underwater and a traditional metal detector.

Even when he was a repairman, he dove and made and sold art on the side, always with the help of his wife, Cindy. During that time, he trained for a year with a glass artist from Maine Art Glass Studio in Lisbon.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to make butterflies and dragonflies, dude,’” Carney said.

He’s sold pieces nationwide through his studio, Old Bottle Sea Glass of Maine.

Though Carney’s sometimes wacky pieces —like those made from old doll heads — don’t seem to fit into the traditional art crowd, his pieces do well at art shows, historic bottle expos and fairs like the Big E in Massachusetts, he said. He also regularly has pieces for sale in art and gift shops around Brunswick.

“I’ve sold everything I’ve ever made in 15 years, and it’s just crazy,” Carney said. “I thought it would stop; we were just going to make a few little bucks.”

Carney’s favorite places to dive are local rivers and lakes, like Pocasset Lake in Wayne and the bodies of water in the Wiscasset area. He pays special attention to spots near old houses or summer camps where people could have dumped trash or lost treasures over the years.

Carney recalled a treasure hunt that got him featured in the Maine Sunday Telegram in 1999, after he was called in to Salmon Lake to dive for a newlywed husband’s lost wedding ring.

When Carney surfaced with the ring, the couple “just couldn’t believe it,” he said.

“I have the gift,” Carney said.

The coolest thing Carney’s intuition ever led him to underwater was a 7-foot anchor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that he believes came off a schooner.

“It was huge, it was wonderful,” he said.

Carney has no intention of hanging up the wetsuit anytime soon.

“There’s way too many projects for me to not continue until I die,” Carney said.