We were visiting family north of Eau Claire this week-end and had an opportunity to go to the U.S. Open Chainsaw Sculpture Championship competition. Everyone starts out with a log and have free rein to do their creations. They started working Thursday morning and judging will be Sunday afternoon. We were there on Saturday afternoon and it is amazing what they have been able to accomplish.
There are 11 contestants, two from Japan, one from Italy and one from England. The rest are from the U.S. Two women are among the U.S. competitors.
2nd Place went to Chris Kuehn of Minnesota. The detail in the moose and the underwater roots was incredible.
They used chainsaws of all sizes - some quite small for detail work.
3rd place went to Dave Parsons of Minnesota. His eagle was majestic. This also gives you an idea how large the original log must have been. Each sculpture has their own scaffolding so they can work on the higher parts of their creation.
If I were to go back, I would like to see the beginning stages of cuts. It's not like a mis-cut can be glued back on. Actually I couldn't find a site with the rules, so maybe they can. The opossum in this creation was a separate piece of wood and the tail slides onto the extended arm.
A close up of the artist working on his award winning Moose.
This one was my favorite. Can you find all seven animals?
And the winner is: Takao Hayashi of Japan
It would have been nice to get back on Sunday to see their finished works of art, but I was totally impressed with their works in progress.
The noise must have been deafening but the end results are majestic!
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