| Carvers ready their saws for annual sculpture event
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Several logs are ready to be bucked down to size at Rainbow Plaza for Thursday’s opening of the Oregon Divisional Chainsaw Sculpture Championships. - Umpqua Post Photo by Jack Carrerow |
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By Jack Carrerow, Staff Writer
The ninth-annual Oregon Divisional Chainsaw Sculpting Championships returns to Reedsport starting tomorrow and concluding Sunday.
This is the third of four qualifying events held nationwide, leading up to the championship event in October in Albuquerque, N.M.
Last year’s event drew 6,000 spectators and this year, event organizers are hoping to attract even more.
The theme for this year’s competition, sponsored by the Reedsport/Winchester Bay Chamber of Commerce, is “Fish Tales.”
The logs for the event were furnished by Roseburg Forest Products and Jeff Unger Logging of Reedsport. The logs were delivered to Rainbow Plaza, where the 4- to 7-foot diameter logs were cut into lengths of about 7 feet.
Chamber of Commerce Events Coordinator Joe Mirvis said the event has a reputation for having the best wood.
“The carvers love this event because of the high quality of wood they’re given to work with,” said Mirvis, who also gave credit to Umpqua Building and Hardware for helping to get the needed logs. “We’ve brought in spruce for the master carver competitions and cedar for the quick-carve events.”
The competition will conclude Sunday with the announcement of the winners. The chain saw sculptors begin carving at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and carve until 5 p.m. each of those days. On Sunday, the competitors begin at 8 a.m. and carve until noon.
Each day, beginning at 10:45 a.m., carvers participate in a quick-carve competition, in which they are given 75 minutes to complete one carving. Quick-carve sculptures will be auctioned off at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The event admission is $1 per day.
Other events, including a free concert on Friday, a carvers’ reception at the Tides Inn Bar & Grill on Friday night, a pancake breakfast fundraiser at the Reedsport Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday morning, a Corvette show on Saturday, and a street dance and beer garden Saturday night ($5 admission).
For more information, those interested can call 271-3495.
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