Chetwynd, BC

Sunday, June 11, 2017

In 1992 Chetwynd, BC decided to start decorating the town with chainsaw carvings since they host the International Chainsaw Carving competition annually.  The town has over 150 carvings placed around town.  We took pictures of most of them.  I'm going to put just 15 of them in this post.  By the way, this post is going to have about 55 carvings pictured. Just a warning. So here are the 15 I chose.

There were many subject matters and some I did not care for myself, but I did put a variety in.  I did not put any of the cowboy carvings in.  Too many to choose from.


The main reason for us to stop in Chetwynd was to attend the International Chainsaw Carving Competition happening this weekend. Because we didn't get here until late yesterday today was our first opportunity to go.  Today is the last day of this 4 day event.  The next 24 pictures will be the beginning (as we saw them) and the final project of each of the 12 contestants. There were 5 awards made, People's Choice, Carvers Choice, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I point out each one.

The fringe is actually bark soaked and shredded then threaded through holes drilled in the wood.

 This carver is from Japan and used only chainsaws and no assistant.  He won People's Choice and 2nd place.

This piece was almost finished by the time we got here on Sunday.

 This depicted a bear tripping over a log in the woods and dropping his fish (which you cannot see in this picture).  The carver tells us that we all have mishaps in our lives and we need to just laugh them off.

Neither Tic nor I cared for this carving.

 This is another piece we did not care for.  However it does show great imagination.

This team was making a tribute to Alzheimer patients.  It was really cool. 

We did not think this one took much imagination or skill. However it won 3rd place. There is a bird on its finger.

We liked this one best. The wildebeest  escapes the jaws of the crocodile.  Look at the fear captured in the eyes of the wildebeest. This was our favorite carving.  This carver also only used his chainsaws and no assistants. This carving won first place AND Carvers Choice.

 While this did take some imagination the carver had an assistant that did all the sanding and smoothing of surfaces.

This piece was done by a woman carver.

After time was up for the major projects, each contestant participated in a "quick carving" event.  Each contestant was given a large hunk of tree trunk and 1.5 hours to carve whatever they wanted.  A few of them cut the wood into 2 pieces and got 2 projects done in the 1.5 hours allotted. Below are pictures of the start and of many of the final quick projects. 

It is amazing what some of them did in 1.5 hours.

The artwork of each carver was then auctioned off and the carvers got to keep the money.  The winning bids ranged from $275 to $1050.  Shocking how much was spent on carvings.