Montessori Guitar

This guitar was created as a school project for the Junior Elementary class at Alcuin Montessori School in Oak Park, Illinois.

The body is made with custom-cut jigsaw puzzle pieces designed and painted by the students. These pieces were laminated onto the front and back of the guitar with additional plywood sandwiched between to make a full-thickness body. Slight incisions were made in the sides where the pieces join one another to create the illusion that the guitar was made from 1-3/4″-thick puzzle pieces.

Informed by the design aesthetic of Montessori materials made by Nienhuis, the body wood is Baltic birch plywood and the guitar is finished in clear lacquer. The result is a stunning patchwork of color and shape that would look right at home in a Montessori classroom.