The chainsaw-wielding wood carving artist has been perfecting his craft for the last 8 years with about 8090% of his creations donated to various organizations and fundraisers.
Like many artists, Ham is self-trained. He’s been artistic his whole life, dabbling in different forms like drawing, hand carving, building furniture, tattoos and spray paint murals. He took up chainsaw carving in 2015.
“Instead of sticking to the same field for my whole life, I saw a YouTube video and a guy was doing some chainsaw carvings. So, I decided to get up off the couch and go to Reliable when they were closing down, and I got a cheap electric saw ... and I went home and started doing it,” he said. Since then, his skills have grown along with his tools, but he said one of his favorite parts of working in this particular medium is the thrill of confidently carving into a chunk of wood and seeing the finished product emerge. Because of the nature of the work, Ham said he can go only “so far with the chainsaw before you ruin it”, so the work has to be done relatively quickly.
“Being able to do something quickly and with confidence” is a favorite part of the carving process, as well as seeing his vision come to life and the subsequent
reactions from clients and loved ones. He can carve an iconic 4-foot bear from a stump in about 3 hours.
His finished products take some extra artistic touches of varnish, paint and wood burning.
People may wonder how a sculptor decides what to create; how they know what that block of wood or stone contains. Ham said, “I don’t really exactly have a plan when I first start. I just know, and I trust myself.” He said the design forms as he goes. “It’s amazing what you can come up with when you put a few cuts into something.”
Once the idea takes hold, though, Ham said it’s hard to shake it. “It just seems like if I get an idea in my head the night before, I go insane if I don’t get it into reality the next day,” he said.
Examples of what “a few cuts” have already led to: a lion’s face roaring from a mane of tree roots, a giant chain of separate links cut from a single trunk, Thor’s hammer Mjolnir balanced on one beveled edge, a sleepily grinning sloth clinging to a tree trunk, a spin-
ning globe nestled in a curved base and a motocross inspired dirt bike wheel trophy among many, many others. There is also a sculpture of an underground miner on a pedestal in C and is currently working on a dragon. Many of his pieces adorn properties in Winnemucca; two of his carvings flank the entrance to the city’s golf course.
When people look at a log, they might wonder how long it would burn or if it’s hiding bugs under the bark. Not Danny Ham. The Winnemucca native and father of 5 looks into a chunk of wood and wonders what sculpture is trapped inside.New life for old wood: (Below left) Ham found this hollow tree stump in the hills and made it into a honeycomb using his chainsaw and recycled plastic.
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With all of his pieces scattered around northern Nevada and beyond, Ham says his most challenging job to date is a 6-foot working — yes, working! — Nutcracker that is capable of crushing cans and other similarly-sized objects in its mouth when its tailcoat is pulled. He said the Nutcracker “lives” in Elko. To construct it, Danny searched for normal-sized Nutcracker construction plans online and then simply scaled it all up to size, engineering and adjusting as he went. He also has ideas for pieces big enough to install at a park for kids to climb around on.
“There’s no limit to what I can make,” he said.
One of the most challenging aspects of this job is not the sharp, biting teeth of the chainsaw, nor the intense physical demands; no, Ham said he is most challenged when he “sees” a sculpture within a stranger’s front yard tree and he can’t just go cut it down to manifest his vision.
“Sometimes I’m driving around and I’m just like, ‘you don’t what you have in your yard!’” he quipped. He says he gets this same sensation with a blank canvases and paper.
“I can look at something and see there’s something in there,” he said. “There’s something there that I want to bring out. If I don’t bring it out, it’ll just sit there and rot.”
In the future, he hopes to develop his “art gig” — as he humbly calls it — into a nonprofit with the intention of holding quarterly fundraising shows to raise money for people in the community. Supplies, equipment and materials are expensive and he does everything out of his own pocket. He posts pictures of his finished pieces and works in progress on his Facebook page under his name and is open to commissions and other projects. Danny and his wife Jaymi have five children together Jaydan (18), Easton (16), Christian (10), Mary (7) and Franky (4) and live in Winnemucca.
Clint and Kim Riddle love repurposing things and giving them a second chance. With old scrap wood, shovels, wheelbarrows, and other wooden materials, they have dreamed up and built many different things.
Clint spent 40 years in mining before retiring and taking up woodworking, a hobby that he has wanted to pursue since he was in his twenties, but never really had the chance. Now, at 70, he spends hours and hours in his shop working on unique projects, sometimes until midnight or later.
“I tried a little bit [of woodworking] here and there but you know nothing really big but then once I decided I was going to retire I thought I
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tried to do it seriously…sometimes I’ll work in my shop till two in the morning.” explained Clint.
He and Kim have been married for 47 years and have two children and while Clint works on building art, Kim likes to decorate old wooden wagon wheels and other pieces that Clint builds.
“[Kim] does stuff too, she does real good on her decorated wagon wheels. Especially at the end of the year around Christmas,” explained Clint.
The two sell their projects at local craft shows and fairs, farmers markets during the summer, and sometimes online on Facebook. Clint is always busy making planter boxes, buckboards (four-wheeled wagons), mining equipment replicas, birdhouses, caches (historically used as a way for people to store food outside and up out of the reach of animals), and all sorts of other art.
Clint’s first project began with a series of mining equipment replicas, three to five feet long, that he built and painted, which all sold very quickly after he finished them.
“Since I was in mining it was really easy to make more trucks and loaders and shovels even though I didn’t operate some of them but I sat there and stared at them eight hours a day for 40 years,” said Clint.
After he started making the equipment replicas, he also started making planter boxes, but has found that the buckboards are one of his favorite things to make because of their ease.
“I noticed they were selling even better [than the planters] and took less time and I was selling them for more money,” explained Clint.
His other favorite thing to build are caches, after seeing one while on vacation in Alaska.
Clint explained that “They put up [caches] against their cabins [in Alaska] just in the olden days, not so much anymore, but they do still use them. And they store their meat there because the grizzly bears come into their house, they smell meat and they break the door down and they go in and help themselves. So it’s a common practice to have a shed about eight feet high with a ladder. You take [the ladder] away and you put it there to go eat your meat…Everybody thinks they’re birdhouses, but I saw one and thought oh that’s awesome!”
People sometimes ask for special orders and Clint will make them, but he really enjoys making things spontaneously.
“I will take orders but I feel like I’m working and not playing and then I don’t know if they’re gonna like it,” said Clint.
Clint also finds materials for his projects spontaneously, sometimes seeing potential in a pile of old scrap wood that he and Kim drive by almost every day.
“I get my wood at a good price because it’s old wood—like I’ll see that someone is tearing a fence down—I don’t pay more than $30 for an entire load…The more you do it the easier it is to see a good pile of wood,” he explained.
Just a few days before, according to Kim, she had wanted to throw out some old planters, but Clint saved them and made buckboards out of them, repurposing them and creating something that the two will be able to sell at a craft fair or other event.
“Kim told me that those [planters] were no good and we had to throw them out, but I thought I got lucky and could make something out of them, so I made two buckboards,” said Clint.
Making old things new and making it so others can find something they love comes easy for the Riddles because they enjoy it.
“It’s fun taking stuff and giving it a different purpose—repurposing things,” said Kim.
Even as a little girl Maggie enjoyed building stuff with tools in the ranch shop. Her love for art was discovered then too. She started carving as a hobby in 2011.
People then began requesting items, resulting in the start up of her business, Juniper Creek. “I was inspired to try carving since there are no limits to shapes, like other woodworking — limited to flat planes using saws and angle or bit shapes with a router,” Maggie said. “I truly enjoy the variety of my life! The opportunities are endless when it’s possible to turn a wood board into artful furniture or a piece of fabric into a garment or custom home decor piece.”
Maggie was born in Klamath Falls, Ore., and raised on family ranches in Bonanza, Ore., Alturas, Calif., and Reynolds Creek, Idaho. She then attended Treasure Valley Community College receiving an associates degree in animal science. She worked as veterinary technician and clinic manager until 2016.
One of the most challenging designs for Maggie is carving people.
“It is always a challenge and I usually do them in clay first to help.” By contrast, carving horses comes
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naturally for her and is not a challenge!
In addition to woodworking, some of her other hand-crafted items and services she offers from Juniper Creek are sewing, embroidery, and operating lasers.
“I love variety and say that it satisfies my A.D.D. I would be bored working with only wood,” she said. The list also includes silk wild rags, custom leather purses, leather children’s moccasins, leather earrings, custom embroidered or leather patch ballcaps, embroidered brands for quilts, hand-sewn blouses, engagement dresses and anything else along these lines.
When asked if Maggie offers any classes she responded, “I don’t currently offer classes but would enjoy offering insight to homeschoolers and/or veterans if I could get the time to do that.”
Her advice for others interested in starting up woodworking would be to “try more than one variety of woodworking and try to experiment in someone’s shop due to the equipment cost and space needed to set up a shop.”
This 2023 vendor show season Juniper Creek will be set up at the following locations
• Jordan Valley ,OR Rodeo- set up in the park, May 18-20
• Juntura, OR Ranchers Horse Sale June 3rd
• Bruneau, ID Cowboy Christmas Nov. 11-12
• Burns, OR Sage Creek Country Christmas Dec. 2nd
You can follow Maggie Foreman, Juniper Creek, on Instagram, Facebook or view her website directly at www.junipercreek.net
Saturday, May 06, 2023
Handbags for Hope (Boys & Girls Club)
Thursday, May 25, 2023 - Monday, May 29, 2023
Nev State High School & Junior High School Rodeo Finals
Saturday, June 10, 2023 - Sunday, June 11, 2023
Basque Festival (Both Halls)
Wednesday, June 28, 2023 - Wednesday, July 05, 2023
Silver State International Rodeo(Entire Facility) (T)
Saturday, 15 July 2023 15:00 - 8:00 pm
Food Bank Spaghetti Feed (W.H.) All Rooms
