The Robert Burns portrait made of Scots treats

A GROUP of Scots students have unveiled a collage of Robert Burns – made of Irn-Bru bottle caps and Tunnock’s tea cake wrappers.

Students Gary Ball and Mark Lawrence show off the collage outside Holyrood. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Eleven students from Glasgow Clyde College attended an exhibition at the Scottish Parliament to reveal the artwork celebrating the famous Scots bard.

Created using recycled packaging from products such as Tunnock’s Tea Cakes, Irn-Bru and Scottish newspaper clippings, the mural will be housed outside the members’ restaurant in Holyrood.

The students from the college’s Skills for Life and Work programme took ten weeks to make the mural, as part of a Scottish Studies unit at the Anniesland campus.

Mark Lawrence, 18, from Glasgow, helped create the portrait with the help of his classmates. He said: “I am very proud of it. We used all the labels and all the Scottish stuff to make it. Eleven of us helped to make it and we all did different bits.”

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Class representative Ruairi Hawthorne, 18, from Glasgow said he was “chuffed” to see the finished product. “It’s one of those things that sounds easy but it was ridiculously frustrating because it was super repetitive to fiddle about with,” he said.

“We learned a lot about Robert Burns while we were making it. It was quite interesting.”

The portrait also includes red rose petals to symbolise the song A Red, Red Rose written by Burns in 1794 .

Burns’s tie was made from newspaper clippings from Scottish newspapers to promote the creative arts as well as environmental issues by highlighting the importance of recycling.

Art lecturer Carol Riddet was proud of her class’s efforts and hard work. She said: “One of the students drew it and blew it up on the wall, and all the students took part in sticking on the collage.”