12/24/2006

Northern People

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
David Rose, an American Canadian Fisheries employee, throws a Chinook salmon into a chute during the salmon harvest, which started in Traverse City Tuesday at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources James P. Price Trap and Transfer/Harvest Facility near West Front Street on the Boardman River.

Carving a friendship one Santa at a time

Hobbyist creates figures every Christmas

By GARRET ELLISON

gellison@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Jim Johnson starts making the Santa Claus figures in the summer and gives them to friends and family over the holidays.

TRAVERSE CITY — When Mike Bartkowiak was injured in a fall, Jim Johnson was there to help. When Bartkowiak had open-heart surgery, Johnson was there again.

And the wooden Santa Claus statuettes that Jim laboriously carved by hand each year rest upon Mike's mantle as testament to that brotherly bond.

"You wouldn't consider being that special in someone's life until you know the work he puts into them,” Bartkowiak said.

Johnson, 61, and his wife, Jane, live down the street from Bartkowiak and his family in Holiday Hills. For the past three years, Johnson has presented the Bartkowiaks with a signature custom carved Santa for Christmas — a gift that represents hours of labor and love.

Bartkowiak treasures the figurines. The statuettes cannot be bought; they are reserved exclusively for Johnson's friends and family.

"He doesn't think of himself as an artist, but everyone else does, I think,” Jane said. "He really does a beautiful job. I have a hard time picking out a favorite.”

Every few years, Johnson stocks up on soft, even-grained bass (or linden) wood to dry for a year in his garage. Then, in June, Johnson begins the process of wood sculpting that yields anywhere from a dozen to 25 statuettes by Christmas, ranging in styles from modern abstract to Victorian Old World. Each stands about a foot tall and is signed and dated upon completion.

"They take a decent amount of time to make,” Johnson said. "It can vary from 10 to 20 hours” apiece.

Grabbing inspiration from magazines and store displays, Johnson draws a front, side and back sketch and goes at the wood with a band saw, rotor and grinder, using carving tools for detail. He seals and finishes them with acrylic paint.

A skilled craftsman who picked up carving from his grandfather, Johnson, a retired schoolteacher from Flushing, started making duck decoys as a hobby in the late 1970s, producing several hundred over time.

But, for originality and quality control purposes, he kept the carving at the hobby level.

"When you get into a business, you start taking shortcuts,” Johnson said. "It becomes about the money and how fast you can produce them.”

Recognizing their potential value as holiday gifts, Johnson branched out from ducks after he was inspired by an old papier-mâché candy holder that had belonged to an aunt. He decided to start a collection. Each year marks a new series.

"Original wood carvings cost an arm and a leg,” Johnson said. "You can get a lot of casts, but to me there's a difference between a cast and an original.”

He keeps about 40 to 45 on display over the holidays, sometimes making several different patterns each year.

"It's a tribute to his life, really,” said Bartkowiak, an artisan who works with stained glass at Williams Kitchen and Bath. "A legacy.”

The Bartkowiaks and Johnsons both attend Christ the King Catholic Church in Acme, where Jim and Jane are members of the choir. The Johnsons also volunteer at Munson Hospice House, where Jane plays the harp for patients.

Bartkowiak said Johnson's carvings have cemented a friendship that characterizes Bartkowiak's reasons for moving to northern Michigan in the first place.

"People up here depend on friends much more than they depend on family, I think,” Bartkowiak said. "Because everybody's moving into the area, so their families aren't from up here — and when you've got friends you'd do anything for here, it just makes it special.”