Made in CT: Chainsaw carver gives tree stumps new life through his art
Jared Welcome has been carving designs into tree stumps for nearly 15 years.
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Jared Welcome has been carving designs into tree stumps for nearly 15 years.
He got the idea from a TV show. "I saw them doing chainsaw carving, and I felt in my stomach I could do this," he says.
Fast forward a decade and a half, and he says he has carved more than 100 on-site projects — and even more animal carvings that he sells to the public.
"Primarily when I start, I use a big 55 to 60 cc chainsaw to block everything out. Then, I use some of my smaller chainsaws that have special carving bars on them. And then finally, I use power tools such as sanders and stuff to really fine-tune the details and get everything to look how I want it to look," he says.
He then leaves the carving natural or paints it, depending on what the customer requests.
Welcome thinks it is important to keep the trees where they once grew. "So a lot of these stumps that we have now were once majestic trees. They were homes to the squirrels and birds and, you know, a lot of various wildlife that were in here. You know, to repurpose a tree, it just feels good to give it a new life and, you know, a new purpose and do something fun with it," he says.
Find JareBear Chainsaw Carvings on Facebook.
