Wood flakes and chips have been falling on the ground, and the sound of a chainsaw has filled the street.
The distinctive smell of freshly cut wood has been impossible to avoid.
This is the workplace of Mike Thomas, the woodcarver who owns Wicked NH Carving.
Thomas spent the week of July 8 in Midland carving a statue of a bear with an eagle on its shoulder for resident Lisa Simmons on Swede Avenue near the corner of Airfield Lane.
“It's just self-expression,” he said. “I start from the raw log and end up with a fully painted ... product. It's not only carving it but also painting it, which is a lot of work as well.”
Simmons said she wanted to turn a tree that was recently cut down in her yard into something beautiful. She found out about Wicked NH Carving through a friend.
Simmons said she is fascinated with Thomas’s work.
“He's fantastic,” she said. “If you want wood carving done, he's the man to do it.”
Thomas opened his business in 2018 after he had broken his spine and became unemployable for other types of jobs.
But long before that, Thomas believed he had a calling for wood carving ever since he was 9 years old.
“My brain works like a 3D printer,” he said.
Thomas specializes in dog art. He said he started doing it eight years ago when a client asked him to turn the memories of a dog that had just passed away into wood art.
“My motto is if you can dream it up, I can pull it off,” Thomas said. “I've done carvings that are 30 feet tall and, you know, 8 feet wide at the bottom. ... You can send me a two-dimensional photograph of your favorite human being or your favorite pet, I could turn that into a three-dimensional carving just off looking at the picture.”
There are three steps to woodcarving, Thomas said.
First is carving the general shape. Then, he carves the details. Finally, the process ends with paint.
“Anything can be made into something pretty if you know what you're doing,” Simmons said. “Obviously, (if) there's no sketch, there's no nothing. (Thomas) comes in, he has three different chainsaws ... He just steps back, cuts, steps back, cuts. It is the coolest thing to watch.”
Thomas's shop is in Oil City, but he said he often travels to complete different orders.
For example, he has also carved animals for West Midland Family Center.
“(Woodcarving) is a passion,” Thomas said. “It's a wonderful way to spend a lifetime. And it takes a lifetime to develop it.”
