Last minute gift guide: The vinyl frontier

“Two years ago, my girlfriend wanted a handmade gift,” said artist/entrepreneur James Pleyte. “I had bought a dremel tool that summer at a garage sale for $5, and I took it to a record. That was the beginning.”

Pleyte is the founder of Records Redone, a two-man art business that specializes in turning old albums into figure/ground-style silhouettes. Check out Jimi Hendrix’s face emerging from the “Crash Landing” LP. An old Supremes album becomes a Michigan map. The New York skyline carves a path along the top of Billy Joel’s “52nd Street.”

When he visited his girlfriend, who had moved to Chicago, Pleyte stopped into a store selling Michigan products and showed the owner a picture of some of his work. The store owner immediately placed an order for 15 pieces, and they’ve been doing business ever since. Pleyte now works with seven stores around the country, and his work is featured in Las Vegas lounges and Washington hotels.

“It’s all happened pretty quickly,” Pletye said. “Especially because I was essentially developing (the business) as I went.”

That exact process is an industry secret, but to keep up with demand and maintain uniform quality Pletye moved on to computer-operated cutting. An image is uploaded to a computer and a desktop CNC machine cuts the piece out of an old album. Pleyte and his business partner Derek Vaive, both 29, finish by hand with a utility blade.

“It took months and months to figure this out, and we’re still refining the process,” Pleyte said. “But I get to do something I love and work with my best friend. It can’t get be better than this.”

Business is primarily done through his website, recordsredone.com, but Grace Boutique of Old Town, 509 E. Grand River Ave., features some of his work. Records Redone also does custom work. Output has recently expanded to bookmarks, clocks and bowls, with pieces running between $30 and $75.

Pleyte, a Lansing native who studied philosophy at Michigan State University, waxes philosophic about the criticism he’s received for whittling away at what is essentially an endangered species.

“Twice, people have said ‘how dare you?’ but I only cut things that nobody else wants,” Pleyte said. “We shop the 50-cent bins of all the local record stores, and have good relationships with all the store owners. What I’m working with only needs to be half clean.”

And he said as a lifelong collector, he is tempted to play with his work occasionally.

“Every now and then I find one I want to keep,” he said. “Yesterday, I found a CCR greatest hits album. I’m going to listen to this a few times before I cut it.”

Although he said he enjoys working from home, Pleyte said if business keeps up he’d like to open a brick-and-mortar establishment.

“Our dream next step is to have the world’s most unique record store,” Pleyte said. “One side would be nothing but cheap vinyl, where you could buy anything for $5. The other side would be our art. With an endless supply like that, there’s no limit to what we could come up with.”