beachbites 5909 Cedar Landing Road Cedar Landing Boat slip and water views included with this pristine home in Cedar Landing off of Greenville Loop Road. Natural light fills the 3,600 square feet with additional 2,300 square feet of usable storage; large rooms with easy flow; dream kitchen, 2 fireplaces and hardwood floors throughout. $694,000 TEE WOODBURY Broker/REALTOR®, GRI 910-617-5561 800-533-1840 twoodbury@intracoastalrealty.com Fiberglass cloth, wooden dowels and Ping-Pong balls are some of the materials employed to create sculpted fish from broken surfboards. “I want to take a real fish and make a spoof on it,” he explains. “I take nothing and all of a sudden it’s an animal that has its own personality. I don’t make sad fish.” He could create whimsical, colorful fish out of his broken surfboard. Initially, Gurganus didn’t sell his creations, but gave them to friends as Christmas gifts. As soon as he realized he could make a living as an artist, Fish Bouffant was born. Gurganus, an eastern North Carolina native says he named his business after ladies with big hairdos. “Some women in eastern North Carolina still have that hair. The fish are kind of puffed out and it looks like one of their hairdos.” He makes his home on Pine Street in Beaufort, where he has a shop and gallery. In a former 1880s grocery store, he uses dam-aged surfboards to mold marvelous one-of-a-kind sea creatures. Friends bring Gurganus their broken boards. Depending on how bad the break, Gurganus can make one to four fish out of each board. First he removes the fiberglass outer shell, exposing the foam. He cuts an outline of the fish body freehand, shapes it and adds fins. Fins are made from fiberglass cloth, and then pigmented. Gurganus uses multiple coats of spray paint to blend colors. “It’s so fun working with all the different colors,” he says. Pop-out eyes are made with Ping-Pong balls. A final coat of high-quality enamel paint completes the process. He works on five pieces at a time, six days a week. Gurganus uses fish books and online sources for reference, but strays from the original species to see how far he can stretch his idiom. “I want to take a real fish and make a spoof on it,” he explains. “I take nothing and all of a sudden it’s an animal that has its own personality. I don’t make sad fish.” To date, his largest piece is a shark measuring more than 12 feet mounted on the front of Mako Mike’s, a Kill Devil Hills restaurant. It took about two weeks to make. Gurganus elaborates, “The tail is a whole surfboard and the body is a windsurfer.” Gurganus, 61, doesn’t enjoy the minutiae of taking orders and handling money. His real enjoyment comes from meeting people and making the fish. “It’s a nice way to recycle too, you know,” he says. 18 WBM june 2014
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