Weapons Transformed into Musical Instruments

Craft & Design

I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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December 19th, 2012 16

Mexican artist Pedro Reyes is no newcomer to transforming weapons of destruction into instruments of construction. In 2008, he led a project called Palas por Pistolas to remake 1527 confiscated weapons into an equal number of shovels that were then used to plant the same number of trees. Earlier this year, the Mexican government contacted him to offer 6700 additional confiscated revolvers, shotguns, machine guns, and other weapons, cut into parts and essentially destroyed, for another project. What he came up with is Imagine, a set of 50 musical instruments crafted by six musicians working for two weeks straight. A few examples are shown below, along with a video of the instruments in action. Many more images are available on his site and over on Designboom.