Find out how a Japanese artist takes broken skateboards and transforms them into lifelike sculptures!

I’m a big fan of anything that has to do with skateboarding, especially since skateboarding consumes no fuel!  I’ve told you about 10 Cool Ways to Recycle Skateboards, which includes examples of recycled skateboard jewelry and furniture, so now I’d like to tell you about the recycled skateboard art of Haroshi.  Haroshi is a Japanese artist who takes old, thrashed and broken skateboards and turns them into beautiful wooden sculptures.  Some of these sculptures look so life-like that if they weren’t multicolored, you might mistake them for being real!

So, how does Haroshi create such amazing pieces of art?  He goes through thousands of old skateboard decks and handpicks each piece that he wants to use.  Once he picks the material he stacks them on top of each other, cuts them down to size, shaves off the excess debris and paints them.  The final product is then coated with a glossy finish.

The coolest aspect of each recycled skateboard sculpture isn’t what it looks like on the outside.  Haroshi likes to give each piece “a soul,” so as he’s constructing it he puts a broken metal skateboard piece in the center.  It’s kind of like the “heart” of his work.

Here are some examples of his art:

Images: flickr

Want to see more of Haroshi’s cool recycled skateboard art?  Check out his website, Haroshi.com.