A New Use For Used Gum

Some people swallow it, some people stick it to the bottoms of their chairs, but one man in Italy uses used gum for a creative purpose!

Italian sculptor Maurizio Savini takes used bubble gum and makes it into amazing works of art. Now, you're probably thinking "what could possibly be amazing about a gum sculpture?", but trust me, this guy has some talent when it comes to the pink sticky stuff.

Does he actually chew all of that gum? Yes, he does! (I hope it's sugarless, or he has good dental insurance.) He can take thousands of pieces of gum and turn it into a masterpiece that can sell for upwards of $60,000!

Now, the sculpture doesn't smell like gum, or like gross (because, ew, old gum). After the sculpture is perfect, Savini permanently fixes the pieces with formaldehyde and antibiotics.

But, of all the things, why use gum as a medium for art? Savini told our friends at CraftFoxes.com,

The synthetic fleshliness of the pink color, the obsessive square shape of the product unwrapped and ready to be shred to pieces by the power of the tongue, all compete in crashing on the senses. Applying all this to the power and energy of the sculpture and its history causes a short circuit that has the capacity of turning the ludic into stately and vice versa.

You can read more about Maurizio Savini at gallerianextdoor.com. (It's all in Italian, though.)

Want to learn how to make your own gum art? Check out the video below!

[via: CraftFoxes]