Creating art with old CDs (photos)

CDs might not be worth much to you anymore, but for Australian artist Sean Avery, they are a treasure. Find out why here.

Bonnie Cha

Feb. 24, 2012 1:34 p.m. PT

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Sean E. Avery

Big purple bird

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.

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Sean E. Avery

Bear

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.

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Sean E. Avery

Hummingbird

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.

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Sean E. Avery

Owl

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.

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Sean E. Avery

Bat

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.

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Sean E. Avery

Falcon

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."

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Sean E. Avery

Blue wrens

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

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Sean E. Avery

Rat

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

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Sean E. Avery

Spoonbill

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.