By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
This year’s Jamboree Days on Saturday, July 6, will have activities that extend throughout the Lake Drive area after the 10 a.m. parade is over. There will be vendor booths and bands from the 7-Eleven lot to the kid’s fun zone at Rim Bowling and west to Encompass Antiques and Higher Grounds Coffee House.
Next door to High Grounds, under the trees in the parking lot of How Money Works, is where Kirby Craig will be using his chain saw all day long Saturday, giving a chainsaw show and creating a new bear sculpture. He will be demonstrating what it takes to carve a patriotic bear out of a log.
At the end of the day, when the bear is completed, it will be won in an opportunity drawing by those who get tickets. The four-foot-tall patriotic bear carving will be able to hold a flagpole to fly whatever type of flag the winner chooses.
Craig, who lives in Big Bear, is coming to Crestline for Jamboree Days to demonstrate the skills and techniques it takes to carve large logs into sculptures. He will have many examples of his bears and other sculptures on display around the How Money Works yard, and for sale as well.
Craig moved up to the mountains in 1996 from Glendale to get out of the city living rat-race. He was working as a bartender when he met a local wood carver, Tom Beithan, who taught him how to carve. His skills improved under the supervision of both Beithan and Rod Blair, who carved the bears at County Bear Jubilee at Disneyland.
Craig bought the business from Beithan. “I’ve always said that I’m just carrying on a long-standing wood carving tradition in Big Bear and taking it to the next level for those around me. I like to think I’m a wood carving ambassador.”
He has been doing this for 23 years and has developed quite a following of his characteristic “happy bears” style. He also does what he calls Flintstone furniture with his bandsaw mill, selling live edge slabs and rustic tables and benches, and does hand-carved signs as well.
Craig also makes art pieces and is currently in the midst of creating a three-piece scene of 12-foot-tall dragonflies. “I have the wings cut out. I did the rings, designed a program and cut the wings out on the CNC machine because it’s so complicated. It took eight hours to run on each wing with the wing patterns. I’ll attach the wings soon. I hope to create something that nobody’s ever done. I enjoy the artistic creativity aspect of things. I’ve been running a business for a long time now and that hasn’t afforded me as much time as I would like to evolve artistically.” He’s also created a huge octopus sculpture, with all its arms out of wood.
Being a wood carver has been a wonderful life for him. About six years ago he met a man from Australia at an international carving competition in Wisconsin, and they became friends. Then six months later he found himself doing an exhibition carving for three weeks in Australia, really enjoying that and now wants to do more. He’s recently purchased a bus on which he’s painted the name “Gratitude.” It’s a wood workshop on wheels, and he plans a cross-country sojourn, following competitions and carving while on the road.
Craig will be carving at How Money Works, 24385 Lake Drive, next to Higher Ground Coffee House from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. when the drawing will be held for his patriotic bear.
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