Eighty-eight-year-old Lorne Collie has been making musical instruments for more than three decades, creations that dazzle for their unique materials as much as their sound.

There鈥檚 a hefty bass guitar and a cello made of moose antlers, a baseball bat violin, ukuleles made of cookie tins, and guitars fashioned from pitch forks, a shovel, and a rake.

His personal favourites? A frying pan mandolin and a banjo made of a motorcycle tire rim, covered by stretched deerskin painted by his late wife.

鈥淲hen people wanted to buy them, I always said No,鈥� Collie said from his home outside the tiny and remote Manitoba community of Hilbre, about 230 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 hurting for money, but what I was afraid of is that if I started selling them, I would be working myself to death to try to keep up to the orders.鈥�

Collie said he once turned down an offer of $35,000 for a moose antler electric guitar.

Now things have changed.

鈥淭hat was the policy back then,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 88 now and not as spry and lively as I used to be.鈥�

With the help of his son James who lives in Hope, B.C., Collie is hoping to sell some of his collection. The electric bass guitar is on sale for $8,000, and the cello for $6,500.

Collie said he needs the funds to upgrade his older model electric car to one with better range and speed, so he can see his large family.

鈥淚 would like to and I do quite a bit of travelling. My wife has passed on and I鈥檓 alone. I鈥檝e got 25 great grandchildren and they鈥檙e all in Alberta and B.C.,鈥� Collie said. 鈥淚鈥檝e got lots of reasons to drive.鈥�

Collie said he first put the antler instruments up for sale this summer, but while there were a few inquiries from Vancouver 鈥渘obody came out to see them.鈥�

鈥淵ou really have to see them to appreciate them,鈥� he said.

Collie鈥檚 instrument building began with a near-death experience that forced him to retire from his trade as a machinist.

He said he was 鈥渨orking tremendous, long hours at a high stress鈥� job in the late 1980s, when he collapsed with a brain aneurysm that put him in a coma for more than a week.

鈥淭hat was supposed to have killed me,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey wrote me off as dead.鈥�

Collie said he woke up with a clear head, and after a friend challenged him to 鈥減ut strings on a shovel,鈥� he began making instruments from other odd, kitschy implements.

He said he walked into his workshop one day, saw a broken guitar on a workbench and a moose antler on another and 鈥済ot the idea of putting them together.鈥�

Friends on a nearby First Nations reserve and a brother-in-law who maintains a trapline found the antlers and gave them to him.

The first antler instrument, a guitar, 鈥渢urned out very, very good.鈥�

The antler doesn鈥檛 warp and it鈥檚 very strong, Collie said, adding that he鈥檚 had success with most materials, other than an ill-fated attempt at making a lap steel guitar from a snowshoe.

The moose antler bass guitar weighs nearly eight kilograms, he said, but it鈥檚 鈥渙ne of the most comfortable鈥� instruments he鈥檚 made.

鈥淎nd it sounds good, just like a good solid-body electric guitar,鈥� Collie said.

Collie isn鈥檛 done yet with his unique instruments. He said he also wants to make a Celtic harp, but he needs 鈥渇airly large antler with quite a deep curve in it.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 not much of a musician,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can play any of them good enough to know if they鈥檙e working, but I鈥檓 not a performer.鈥�

He likes the idea of a group of musicians getting together to do a 鈥渢alent show鈥� with his creations, but if he can sell the antler bass and cello, he鈥檇 be happy 鈥渏ust to know they鈥檙e being enjoyed.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檝e been making stuff my entire life,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was born for making things, that鈥檚 for sure.鈥�