Eighty-eight-year-old Lorne Collie has been making musical instruments for more than three decades, creations that dazzle for their unique materials as much as their sound.
There's a hefty bass guitar and a cello made of moose antlers, a baseball bat violin, ukuleles made of cookie tins, and guitars fashioned from pitch forks, a shovel, and a rake.
"I wasn't hurting for money, but what I was afraid of is that if I started selling them, I would be working myself to death to try to keep up to the orders."Now things have changed.With the help of his son James who lives in Hope, B.C., Collie is hoping to sell some of his collection. The electric bass guitar is on sale for $8,000, and the cello for $6,500.
Collie said he first put the antler instruments up for sale this summer, but while there were a few inquiries from Vancouver"nobody came out to see them."Collie's instrument building began with a near-death experience that forced him to retire from his trade as a machinist. Friends on a nearby First Nations reserve and a brother-in-law who maintains a trapline found the antlers and gave them to him.The antler doesn't warp and it's very strong, Collie said, adding that he's had success with most materials, other than an ill-fated attempt at making a lap steel guitar from a snowshoe.
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