Model worker shows there can be art to recycling
USING more than 150 recycled Diet Coke cans this incredibly detailed scale model of a Volkswagen Campervan was painstakingly built over three months.
It’s just one of a number of remarkable creations that have been hand-crafted by Sinhote Co, a 36-year-old waiter from Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.
Sinhote, who works at the Rake, a tapas bar in Littleborough, makes the models in his spare time using anything he can get his hands on.
Others include a football robot made from sardine tins, which kicks a ball if you blow a whistle and another sardine tin robot aimed at helping kids maths.
It comes with a numerical keypad and claps its hands when the operator gets the sums right.
Sinhote discovered he had a knack for modelling as a boy growing up in a family of eight in the district of Cuntum in the capital Bissau.
But following the death of his dad, when Sinhote was just sixyears-old, he began selling his models on the streets to help his family and pay for his education.
Sinhote, who moved to the UK about three years ago and now lives in Deeplish, said: “When me and my brother were small we would make small models because there were no shops and we had no money for toys.
“We would improvise with basic with whatever we could find. When I was a boy I would go to school, come home and make models.
“I had no time to play with my friends because I would be making models.
“There were six people in my family, I needed to help.
“Now I go to work come home and make models.”
Sinhote moved to Lisbon in Portugal aged 19, where he sold his models to tourists, eventually setting up his own small business.
His reputation grew and in 2015 he appeared on Portuguese TV showing off his work.
Mark Wickham, owner of The Rake, where Sinhote’s pictures of cats and dogs made from old cans decorate the walls, said: “Sinhote came to the door and asked me for a job. Not long after that he started showing me what he did.
“He stayed with us for a bit until he found a flat, and all this time he was asking for empty tins and cans.
“I am a hands on person so I can relate to the skill and patience behind it.
“To get the dimensions absolutely bang on like he does, I can understand just how difficult that is.
“Recycling and upcycling is a big thing at the minute and Sinhote shows what we can do with our waste.”
The VW camper has now been sold for £3,000 to a regular customer at the Rake, who plans to put it on display in his business in Dubai.
And Sinhote eventually hopes to branch out into developing household products and educational aids using recycled waste.
“Making models is my life. All the time I do this,” he said.