Luke chopping local for Christmas tree industry
AS LONG as I ran I’ve never heard the words cabinet making and chainsaw carving cropping up in the one breath. I did on Saturday.
I was talking to an entrepreneurialy spirited young man with a name made for product labels and for success itself.
Luke King was telling me about his, for now, Christmas time enterprise of carving trees with chainsaws.
The Christmas tree industry in Ireland is said to be worth in the region of €21m. But these are trees with a difference. And all of Luke’s raw material is grown, cut and chopped locally. You could say that he’s chopping local for Christmas.
Luke is turning out a series of remarkably true to shape and form trees for the festive season and, while he’s busy now, he’s really laying the groundwork for Christmas 2018 and beyond.
Not that he’s going to be idle in the meantime. Luke is planning a range of products along the lines of what he’s now producing.
And he’s also broadening his range along the parameters of the craft and skills he has acquired from various sources.
A recent course with FAS showed no signs of yielding meaningful employment for Luke and he wasn’t prepared to wait around for something to happen.
“I was an apprentice cabinet maker at one time and I couldn’t complete that because of health issues back then,” said Luke.
“After the FAS course finished recently I was looking around for something to go at and I found a fella on the internet wood carving with different sized chainsaws.
“I thought I’d give it a go and see what would come of it and, while there’s a bit of a difference between cabinet making and carving with chainsaws, it brings its own challenges and bursts of creativity.
“The more I work at it the more ideas I’m getting for other products in this line.
“While I’m involved in Christ- mas tree carving at the moment there are so many other festivals and seasons and their symbols that I can work on – only to think of them,” he mused.
While we were talking I noticed an off cut onto which Luke had burned the image of a crib beneath the Star of Bethlehem.
This pyrography element of his overall craftsmanship is what will keep him going and the hand and eye in during the ‘in between’ months.
Luke’s trees can be decked out with lights just like your conventional tree. If you don’t fancy their natural wood appearance you can paint or spray them to your liking.
With a range of sizes to suit every nook and cranny, there are no needles, no mess, no fuss. And a tree like this will also do you for years to come. They’re natural, they’re recyclable, the raw material is all locally sourced.
He’s in the process of setting up a Facebook page and website for his expanding craft line. Luke can be contacted on 086 08 28 209 or luke91king@gmail.com