Laura Poingdestre’s guitar is shaped like a Remembrance poppy in support of the Royal British Legion. The instrument repairer made the guitar for this year’s Great Guitar Build-Off competition.
Mrs Poingdestre said she used to play clarinet in the Royal British Legion’s Central Band and chose to raise money for the ‘fantastic charity’ with her entry.
She won last year’s public competition with a guitar in the shape of a Jersey cow, giving her entry to this year’s ‘invitationals’ category, along with nine other professionals and woodworking specialists. Her poppy guitar was only the fourth she has made, after starting designing instruments in July last year.
Mrs Poingdestre said it was ‘surreal’ to have won the competition last year and be included in the ‘invitationals’ category. She crafted her cow guitar to ‘make something and have some fun’.
‘I never expected anything out of it, so to win it was a hell of a shock,’ she added. Her first guitar was a present for her brother-in-law, who is a professional guitarist, the second was her Jersey cow, and the last one she made before this competition was a commission for a musician in the shape of Dennis the Menace.
Mrs Poingdestre started making guitars through her business after her instrument repair company, Broken Wind, suffered last year due to the lack of music being played.
‘My repairing side of the business took a hell of a hit,’ she said.
Half of the sale of guitars at auction goes to the Great Guitar Build-Off charity, which helps people get into the industry, with the other half goes to entrants’ selected charities.
Islanders can vote for Mrs Poingdestre’s entry atgreatguitarbuildoff.com. They can also see how she made the guitar and keep an eye on her progress on her Broken Wind YouTube and Facebook.
