Creating art with old CDs (photos)

Sean Avery is a children's book author and illustrator from Perth, Australia, but in his spare time, he creates animal sculptures using old CDs and computer parts. This big purple bird was a commissioned piece for the Scitech museum in Perth.

Avery told Crave he enjoys using old tech as a medium because there's a ton of it around and it looks cool. He said turning "crap into something interesting" is an added bonus.

Avery gathers material from office buildings, where he finds thrown-out CDs and old computer parts. Many times, however, friends and family just bring him used stuff.

Once he has the CDs, Avery uses a pair of kitchen scissors to cut up the discs. Then he organizes the shards into containers by size, shape, and color. He says he has more than 15 different colors in his workspace right now.

The first thing Avery does when starting a sculpture is to build a wire mesh frame to form the base. He then uses a hot glue gun to attach the CD pieces.

Avery only does animal structures. He tells Crave, "Animals are awesome! That, and the CD shard technique suits animals better than any other subject matter."

These blue wrens were another commissioned piece by the Scitech museum.

Avery said a medium-size piece usually takes around a week to complete and requires about 75 CD pieces.

The most pieces he's every used for a sculpture is 300. However, Avery is currently working on a "massive" dragon sculpture for Ripley's Believe It or Not, so we think it's safe to say he'll beat that number.

Avery also makes art out of old circuit boards.

Meet Squidy. Avery said if he had the time, he'd love to create a sculpture of Jolteon from the Pokemon series.

This thorny devil lizard was commissioned by Woodside Oil and Gas in Australia.