There’s nothing good about pollution. Especially in our oceans. But if you can take something negative like that and turn it into a positive, then why not do it? That’s exactly what the expert craftsman, guitar enthusiast, and Instagram creative known as Burls recently did. Via Laughing Squid, we’ve learned how the artist joined forces with ocean cleaners 4Ocean in South Florida. There, they gathered plastic trash of all sorts from the ocean, and Burls used it to build a stunning electric guitar. You can see the journey from trash to treasure in the video below:
As you can see in the video, this was not at all an easy process. Burls made the body of the guitar from shredded bottles, later epoxied onto a wood base. He first attempted to create the guitar’s neck out of bottle caps. Unfortunately, the epoxy wouldn’t stick to any of the plastic. And so it didn’t take long for it to snap in half. Burls ultimately made the neck out of straws that he discovered during the trash collection. We’d say that the final result is truly a thing of beauty.
Burls said, “This was easily the most challenging build I’ve done so far. But it was a fun project where I got to use different methods I haven’t tried yet. And overall, I think it came out looking pretty good.” It’s no coincidence that the plastic used to make this guitar was all blue and white, representing the ocean. Or at least, a pristine and unpolluted ocean.
He added, “Given that this was my first time trying this, and I did it on a budget, I’m pretty stoked at how this turned out.” And we are too! This is right on par with other guitars of his. Including some made of colored pencils, paper, and even an old shovel. You can check out more amazing custom guitars on Burls’ site, as well as his Instagram account.
