FROM JUNK TO ART
ExecuJet MRO Services Group recently placed an order for very unique customer gifts, supporting one of our own employees’ artistic flair.
Fawaz Mohammed is employed at our Dubai facility as an aircraft engineer, but also started his own company called Wings Craft where he turns aircraft and jet engine compressor blades into cool keychains, versatile bottle openers and captivating eye candy through CNC Milling and Laser Engraving. The items are made from extremely light and strong titanium-based superalloys and carry real stories and flight hours from actual missions!
Fawaz always loved painting and making creative things during his school days, and painting was his favourite hobby. As life got busier, he had to make space for other things in life. “Aviation always fascinated me, which tempted me to choose aviation as a career”, says Fawaz. He joined ExecuJet Middle East in 2005 where he was exposed to aircraft and components, which he believes are amazing creations of engineering. “The processes and techniques I learned here helped me to mould a new hobby of upcycling and create something fascinating from scrap lying around, especially from scrapped aircraft and the components” he continues.
Fawaz hates throwing away anything and would always think of ways to recycle items he found lying around. He believes nothing is trash and things should not be thrown away. It’s all about getting creative and finding new ways of re-using them which sometimes involves some serious brain storming or sometimes very simple thoughts. He got the inspiration from junkyard artists who sculpt robots, aliens or predators from scrapped automobile parts.
This led to Fawaz starting to build things in his home garage in 2011 where he had a CNC machine, lathe machine and all basic tools and machinery. His company, Wings Craft, was officially started when he won the best start up idea at a radio station competition in Dubai in 2018. The idea was upcycling aviation history to furniture and décor.
Wings Craft now has official contracts with aircraft recycling companies in the UAE, USA and Russia and has made once-off bespoke pieces such as a reception desk from a Qantas Boeing 747 Rolls Royce RB2111 engine inlet, coffee tables from the engine compressor section, clocks from the stator section, key chains from compressor/stator blade and many more. Some items take a day or two to create and some, like the B747 reception table, took two months.
Fawaz says some of the initial challenges he faced was to get the supplies of aircraft scrap, and then the amount of effort it requires to get the items to an acceptable condition since most it are old, damaged and rusty.
Should you be interested in getting your own bespoke items, you can contact Fawaz on sales@wingscraftshop.comor +971 50 567 9847 or +971 585 604 605. Have a look at some of his work below.
Website : www.wingscraftshop.com