Daily auctions offer chance to bring home a carving

SEDRO-WOOLLEY — They start as raw logs, but within a few whirlwind hours the chunks of wood are transformed into works of art and sold for hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

Every day of the Loggerodeo in downtown Sedro-Woolley, carvers take a section of a cedar tree and get an hour and 15 minutes to create sellable art. The finished pieces from the quick-carve competition, still unvarnished, move immediately to an auction stage where wood sculpture fans fight to outbid each other.

“People come here year after year to bid on the carvings,” said JB Bryson, Loggerodeo vice president. “They know what they like.”

The contestants vie for four top prizes, based on who makes the most money from a single piece. The top winners take home chain saws and carving equipment, but Loggerodeo takes home the money, which creates the financial base for next year’s event.

The carvers pay no entry fee for the contest, but the auction brings in thousands of dollars every day of the weekend. The money earned this year will pay for the wood event organizers are already collecting for next year.

The money keeps the event self-sufficient and allows the carvers to sell the larger pieces they create over the weekend and keep the money.

In the three auctions held this week, Loggerodeo collected $8,700 for next year’s event. Carvers will enter pieces into one more auction at State Street and Murdock at 1 p.m. Sunday. The earnings will be split between Loggerodeo and the carvers.

Other donated pieces, plus a large truck piece prepared ahead of time, were auctioned off with all the money going to Nyal Thomas and Jeannie Iona Wall to help pay for Wall’s cancer treatment. The two received $2,170 from Saturday’s auction.

Auctioneer George Kenny, who has competed in the past and runs the George Kenny School of Chain-saw Carving, said the Fourth of July is always the biggest day for the quick-carve competition.

Carvers are creating art in front of a larger audience, most of whom come by after the Independence Day parade. The larger crowd also draws in more bidders.

“They’re going to try to do some exceptional pieces,” Kenny said before the competition Saturday. “It’s a feather in their cap if they come back top dog.”

The daily competition may not hold the same stature as the awards given by judges, but there’s still some competition and a little bit of strategy the carvers put into the event.

“Bears far outsell everything,” Kenny said.

Rob McElfresa, a demonstration carver this year who has competed in the past, said he tries to stick with the familiar.

“Do what you know how to do,” said the 51-year-old Longview resident. “Something you’ve done repeatedly, so you don’t have to think about it too much.”

Mark Colp said he tends to carve bears for the contest because he knows how to do them and he knows they’ll sell for a good price.

“You really want to hit your base of people with something that a lot of people like,” Colp said.

The strategy seems to work for Colp. His pieces sold for more than any other from the quick-carve competition all three days. Saturday he sold a bear head carving for $475.

Colp said he likes the contest because it allows him to do a smaller piece with more detail. In a little more than an hour he can really only do a head or a portion of an animal. By focusing on a bear head Saturday, he perfected its teeth, fur and facial features.

Doug Seeking, 45, of Everson, bought Colp’s quick-carve submission Saturday afternoon. Seeking, like other wood-carving fans bidding on pieces that day, couldn’t quite say exactly what attracts him to the medium. He just knows what he likes, and what he likes right now is Colp. Seeking said he didn’t consider any other carving up for auction that afternoon.

“I just think it’s awesome,” Seeking said. “We have lots of different bear carvings at home, and that one is incredible.”

Loggerodeo judges announced several winners Saturday afternoon for the larger projects carvers spent the whole weekend preparing. Davy Gagnon took first place in the judged contest, Bob King won the People’s Choice award and newcomer Junior Henderson won Carver’s Choice, which is judged by the other competing carvers.

• Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .