Ephrata man carving niche out for himself

Chainsaw sculpting business gets by on faith

EPHRATA — Business has been good so far, but Jethro Brewer is anticipating a lull.

Come the post-holiday season into spring, he expects there won't be much call for his sculptures or benches, carved from the buzzing blades of a chainsaw.

But, while he occasionally worries, Brewer, with his wife of 26 years, Cheryle, said everything seems to turn out all right.

"It's been steady, I guess," he said. "One week I'll wonder where we're going to get enough money to pay the bills, and the next week … it's God's gift to us. He just comes through on the right weeks when we need the money. For some reason, there'll always be something that happens."

Brewer got started in chainsaw sculpture about five years ago when his brother-in-law, a motel owner in Wyoming, has a customer ask if he had a place to carve. The brother-in-law watched him and picked up the habit. He came to town to show Cheryle, who didn't exactly pick it up.

"By the time we got done, it was like, 'Forget it,'" Cheryle recalled. Her husband fared better. "His kind of was a bear. Mine was a thumb."

Brewer liked the art of it.

"I enjoy the challenge of doing something like that," he said. "You have a quick gratification, I guess. If you had a chisel and you're working that way with gouges, it takes a long time to get something worked out. With this, it goes fast. With a chainsaw I can carve it out pretty fast."

Prior to launching his own business, Brewer had been working in a feed lot. For a while, he divided his time between working all day and his carving all night, but ultimately had to make a choice between the two.

"There's a lot of people that pick it up and do it a few times, and that's enough for them," he said. "But it just bit me, I guess."

"It was a leap of faith," Cheryle said. "He was actually doing two full-time jobs. He loved doing this; this is where his passion is. This is where, to me, his God-given gift is. He just took to it, like that."

After about a year of prayer, the Brewers decided to launch Jep Saw a Tree May 1.

Brewer takes his sculptures and pieces around to different craft bazaars and markets. The business got a lot of positive response from an appearance at the Grant County Fair in August.

"It's just kind of dominoed," Cheryle said.

Brewer said his bear sculptures are probably the most popular. He also carves benches, eagles, herons, rocking horses, a rocking bear and people.

"Bears are what sell," Brewer said. "People always say, 'You like bears, don't you?' And I say, 'No, people like bears.' It's why I carve them. I like bears, but I would rather carve people than anything. More of a challenge."

One customer asked Brewer to carve a likeness of his wife.

"This is when I first got started, and he came and asked me if I did people," he said. "He said, 'Can you carve me and my wife?' I said, 'You want to get us both killed, don't you?'"

Brewer chuckles at the memory. "He said, 'No, my wife has an interesting face. Kind of woody.' That was kind of an interesting face."

He also did a pot-bellied pig at the fair. Brewer said he didn't think it looked like much, but the customer was crying by the end, saying it looked just like a pet.

Cheryle said her preference is for her husband's eagles.

Brewer said the important thing is getting the initial cuts done correctly. With a chainsaw, it's easy to cut too far, he noted.

"When you start out, you kind have to see it in your eye and you know where you're going to start," he said.

Cheryle said the goal, in at least two years, is to ultimately find a place for Brewer to have a shop to work out of and display his pieces. He presently carves at a friend's house in the Soap Lake area, and keeps the pieces at his Ephrata home.

A friend once observed his sculptures and opined that Brewer's talent was wasted at the feed lot, Brewer said.

"I don't think people go with what God's given them a lot of times," he said. "Everything that I have has been a gift from God."