July 18, 2001
Jim Reynolds crafts artwork out of sunken treasure
Carver creates logging scene from 100 year old pine
By Lisa Perkins
Herald staff writer
What looks like just a log to most people, is more like an empty canvas to Jim Reynolds of Traverse City. A woodcarver by trade, Reynolds can turn a 14 foot log into a work of art.
Reynolds' latest project falls into that work of art category. A logging village, complete with wagon train and bunkhouse, seems to pop right out of the pine timber in which it is carved. The clear cut pine, which comes from a "sunk log" or log that has been reclaimed from an underwater excavation site, is thought to have been submerged for more than 100 years.
"This wood is a very dense wood, not like the wood you get from trees that are cut today," said Reynolds, during a Cherry Festival carving demonstration at the Open Space. "It makes it very easy to carve into. You can do beautiful things with it."
Using everything from antique gouges and chisels to a woodburner and an instrument similar to a dentist drill for very fine details, Reynolds painstakingly removes areas of wood to reveal an image he has penciled in.
Reynolds, who started carving in 1979, estimates it will take nearly a month to complete the piece that has already been sold and is expected to find a home in a Bass Pro Shop.
"I started out carving decoys to use for duck hunting, they were pretty basic," Reynolds said of his first attempts at carving. "I went to a fair and there was a guy there who had just used a wood burner to make feathers on a duck. I thought, if he can do it, I can do it too."
Not only did he find that he could he do it, but that he could do it very well. In fact, he is a five time world champion game bird artisan. "If I do something, the next time I want to do it better, that is just the way I am."
Over the past eight or nine years, Reynolds has expanded the subjects he captures to include life size black bear and still life scenes such as his current logging scene project.
"One of the first things I did, other than the birds, was some totem poles that Traverse Bay Woolens wanted for their new Mackinaw City store. I had never done anything like a totem pole so I had to do some research on that one," Reynolds noted. "I wanted them to be authentic, but I found that the Indians in this area didn't use totem poles, so I had to come up with something that I thought would hold some significance."
He also likes to work on a smaller scale, making jewelry and custom knives with fine detail he compares to scrimshaw. "There is always something new I would like to try. I just like doing it all."
Reynolds has been making his living for the past eight years on this venture that started out as a hobby. "Sometimes I even make a living at it," he joked, "this is self-employment at its finest."