Jun 10, 2010

Self-taught Macon woodworker unlocks treasures within woodBy Jim VorelHerald-Review.com

Macon, IL – When Jerry Sievers goes for a stroll through his backyard and its hundreds of stacked logs and tree trunks, he sees more than piles of inanimate wood. In one forked tree trunk, he points out the perfect material for a bowl; in other logs, he sees everything from Christmas ornaments to spinning tops to letter openers and other crafts.

Luckily for Sievers, he has the tools of the trade – his own miniature sawmill and hand-built spring pole lathe – to make his projects a reality. Every “hunk of wood” becomes a canvass.

“When I walk through the yard, I’m like a kid in a candy store,” the Macon resident said. “When I look at something like that big forked trunk, I see a piece of wood that most people wouldn’t even want for firewood, but there’s a beautiful bowl in there, because that’s where your real beautiful wood is, inside the forks.”

The forked trunk contains wood with a unique patterning, that when properly worked, spider-webs across the bowl, looking like a delicate henna tattoo or tiny map, with little capillaries crisscrossing the surface. When one spends more than a few minutes with Sievers, picking up tidbits of the woodturning craft is inevitable. His entire property reflects the woodworking hobby that has been a huge part of his life since his retirement in 2001 after 33 years working in the Decatur Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. factory.

In fact, there doesn’t seem to be any place one can set foot on Sievers’ property without running into a pile of wood in varying stages of work. In addition to the large trunks and logs in the yard, Sievers barn is filled from the floor to the ceiling with planks of various woods, differing in every conceivable way: by grain, pattern, hardness and use, among others.

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