Glynis Verrazzano started carving about a year ago, but shes had a lot of experience with chainsaws. She was a firefighter and a paramedic for 20 years in Atlantic Beach, N.C. Her experience was mainly cutting things up not making beautiful carvings.
What started out as a hobby has slowly become a business. She began by doing bears all kinds of them, out of all kinds of wood. They are really my bread and butter, she said. They are fast to make and people really like them.
Start to finish, most of her bears scultures take about an hour to carve.
Her favorite part of chainsaw carving is making larger sculptures.
Sculpture is more in-depth ... more of a showpiece. I enjoy doing the details, she said.
Verrazzano apprenticed with Ken Braun, a chainsaw artist who sells his carvings on Main Street in Cortez.
He just recently turned me loose, she said. That means that she had learned all she needed to learn about carving from him and was ready to work on her own.
The tools of her trade mostly chainsaws are all in a large converted horse barn on her property. Besides the saws, she has a special tool to make the eyes on her bears, a grinder and a sander. She has quite a collection of chainsaws, mostly because she wanted to try out different brands.
She also has several different sizes as well, including a long 30-inch saw for big work, and smaller ones for the detail work.
When a sculpture or carving is complete, she sometimes uses a blow torch to blacken and bring out details in certain areas. She paints some but she leaves most of her creations with their natural color. The final step is a coat of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits to keep the wood from cracking, and then a coat of polyurethane.
Then its ready for sale and display at a home or business.
Verrazzano doesnt have a preference when it comes to wood, although shes learning that some wood is softer. She uses spruce, pine, cedar, aspen, cottonwood and piñon in her carvings.
Sometimes soft doesnt mean better when it comes to chainsaw carving.
Ive found that aspen is really fun to work with, but its very soft, she said.
And if she makes a mistake, she just throws it in the firewood pile and starts over.
Cottonwood and spruce are the easiest to work with. Theyre more forgiving. Shes working on a big sculpture right now that is made out of spruce.
She wears all the safety protection that is recommended. Its really important that anyone who does this kind of work know that this protection is crucial, she said. She has the chaps, the ear and eye protection, and gloves. She sharpens her own chains to save time, but she has Braun do the mechanical work on her saws.
Im just amazed what I can do with a piece of wood, she said. She can get creative with her carvings, and, after a year, is beginning to see things in logs and trees.
Im not sure how this got where it is now, she said. But people really love these carvings. I never intended to sell anything!
Verrazzano, whose business is called Woodies by Glynis, can be reached at 970-560-3014 or by emailing her at woodiesbyg@gmail.com.