Caution Men At Work - Fun Time at Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Competition

Chetwynd, BC 54 degrees, rain on and off, occasional blue skies)

Grand Prize Winner - Lady Gaga

On the second weekend of June each year in Chetwynd BC a festival takes place involving strong men, chainsaws and red cedar. Twelve carvers from all over the world arrive to participate in the Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Competition. To give you can idea of their talent this piece of red cedar went from this...

to this in an hour and a half

We really had a good time!  The main event is the four day chainsaw carving.  Each man is given a large piece of a red cedar tree and has four days to complete their piece. There were carvers from all over including Ireland, Australia, Lithuania, Japan, United States, and Canada. It started at 8 am each morning and went to 6 pm each evening. On the last day it ended at noon with one additional completion called a Quick Carve. We stopped by each day checking out the action and seeing their progress. 

Carving from a previous completion seen at the Visitor Center

Each carving belongs to the town upon completion and there are over 180 carvings displayed all over. The visitor center has a map of their location, artist and the year each one was completed.

Here is some of the action during the event and the final entry.

This carver below is from Indiana and he dedicated this  piece memory of his step father. It included some of his favorite hobbies.

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This carver below is a local artist and celebrity who has a TV show on chainsaw carving

He won the People"s Choice Award for his Poseidon creation

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This one was made in pieces and not assembled until the final moments

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Won the Carvers Award - selected by the participants. The detail in this piece is amazing

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John voted for this piece

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This was a very dramatic piece based on a passage in Revelations. Artist is from Pennsyvania

One the last day after the main event was completed, each of the artists were given a small piece of a log to carve in an hour and a half. Each of the creations were auctioned off and the artist got to keep the proceeds. It was amazing to watch how quickly each piece developed right before our eyes. The pieces went from $300-$2000. 

This one has a bear coming through the log. It was really adorable

Framed Blue Heron

 During the action each artist was driven by everyone in the crowd showing off their peice.

Here are a few seen around town

Star Wars

I love this one

Scuba Diver

Jann and her new friends

Lord of the Rings

Barry and Jann told us about this event they attended on a previous trip to Alaska.  We decided to plan our itinerary around it. It was so much fun and definitely worth the stop. I hope you enjoyed it too.