Gypsun Shardes Unique Guitars
Shawn Denman creates one-of-a-kind guitars using cigar boxes, solid wood and various artistic treasures that he continuously collects. His work has been published in two books authored by David Sutton, (1) Cigar Box Guitars: The Ultimate DIY Guide for the Makers and Players of the Handmade Music Revolution, and (2) Obsession with Cigar Box Guitars: 120 Great Hand Built Examples. As testimony to the uniqueness of Shawn's creations, one of his double-box guitars was featured on the cover of the latter publication. Each guitar that Shawn builds is a labor of love that reflects his distinctive style and imagination.
Shawn was born in a beautiful valley in Southern Oregon and grew up surrounded by big trees, mountains, snow-fed rivers and an abundance of wildlife. It was there that he began to cultivate his artistic abilities, inspired by the natural surroundings and a growing need for creative expression. He experimented with air-brushing, oil and watercolor painting, woodworking and even metal sculpture. For a number of years, Shawn worked in jobs that served to hone his artistic skills, including professional powder coating and manufacturing gazebos. The attention to detail and quality that he practiced early in his career is evident in his work to this day.
In 2006, Shawn and his wife made a gigantic move to Chicago. He found himself spending those initial days exploring the city on foot, taking pictures, and creating paintings and collages of what he saw. He really missed working with wood however, and soon found himself signing up for a class at the Chicago School of Guitar Making. One class led to another, which led to another, and then yet to another (you get the picture), and eventually he served as an apprentice under Ian Schneller of Specimen Products. Not only did Shawn learn how to build, he learned how to properly set up, repair, wire, fret and re-fret guitars. He was hooked.
Shawn continued learning everything he could about stringed instruments by enrolling in lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music, frequenting music stores, attending local performances by greats such as Buddy Guy, Bonnie Rait, Jonny Lang, Susan Tedeschi, and Joe Bonamassa, just to name a few. He even traveled to Marknuekirchen, Germany to visit the Framus Guitar museum, a brand he had long-admired for craftsmanship. He reflects that creating guitars brought all of his skills and interests as an artist together a way that fulfilled him like no other pursuit had in the past. And create he did.
Limited by space in the downtown city condo he and his wife shared, Shawn was without the means to build the hard-body electric guitars that he had embraced during his studies at Specimen Products. He found the answer to this challenge by looking in the rear-view mirror. The history of the guitar in the U.S. captivated his ever-present imagination and he learned that many of the great blues players began playing on handmade instruments built from whatever material they could find and attach strings to. Shawn soon began trying his hand at building cigar box guitars in a small spare bedroom overlooking the Kennedy Expressway and Gypsun Shardes Unique Guitars was born.
Shawn's guitars are functional works of art. He creates everything from the one-string Diddley Bow to the traditional six string guitar. He adds modern touches such as pickups to “help them speak up in our fast-paced world”. He incorporates items in his designs sourced from antique stores, flea markets, craft fairs, salvage yards, etc. Some of his guitars have a classic look to them, while others embody the distinctive Steam Punk style, representing his love of mechanics and innovation. His work continues to evolve with each new guitar that he builds and he gets no greater sense of joy than when someone sees his creations for the first time and asks to play.
Nowadays Shawn can be found in Chicago's quiet northwest suburbs among big trees once again. His studio is a spacious 1,100 square foot rehabbed chicken coop, complete with an abundance of power tools and a pellet stove for heat to manage through long Midwest winters. The Coop invites inspiration, drawing a similarly creative group of musicians each Sunday to jam, write songs, and eat good things out of a crock pot. On any other given day, you'll find Shawn working on his latest build and/or conjuring up his next project.
