 |
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Wood Carver Bill Sitter has carved out his own niche in the world of fishing.
STORY BY GARY THOMAS Wood carving is easy. If you want to carve a duck, for instance, you just take a piece of wood and remove all the parts that don't look like a duck. Pretty simple! That's what Bill Sitter does. He takes a piece of wood and removes all the parts that don't look like what he's carving. And he carves a lot of different things. "I guess I'm best known for carving fish," Sitter said. "I'll carve any type of fish you want, and I can do it full-size, half-size or as a miniature version. I can do full three-dimensional fish, wall mounts or what I call plywood versions which are more like plaques." Sitter, 49, lives in Brookfield and works at Midwest Rod and Reel in Lyons, one of Chicago's western suburbs. He displays some of his work at the store and leaves numerous photographs of his work lying around for prospective clients to take. What caught my attention is that his carvings—especially the fish—are very life-like. The full mounts he carves look as real as work done by taxidermists using a real fish. The same is true for other animals he carves. "My philosophy is very simple," he said. "I try to make things come alive. I take a piece of wood with no form or shape, carve it, sand it and paint it until it looks as though it is a living thing. It's as simple as that."
Bill Sitter carved this half-sized version of a smallmouth
Sitter does three or four sports shows each year, showing off the wide variety of fish and wildlife It might sound simple, but you only need give it a try to realize just how difficult it actually is. Now let's add a couple of factors that make his work even more extraordinary. The first is that he has only been carving for about five years. "I've always been into woodworking in one way or another since I was a youngster, but I'd never tried my hand at carving anything," Sitter said. "Then one day my wife asked me to carve a fish for one of our friends, and I gave it a try. It came out pretty good, and I've been doing it ever since." And if it isn't amazing enough that he has been able to capture some realism in his work in such a short time, let me add that he is completely self-taught in both his carving and painting. "I've never had a lesson or studied carving," Sitter said. "I just seem to have the talent for it. Show me a photo of about anything, and I'm pretty confident that I can carve it." And from the looks of his photo album, he can do just that. A lot of artists specialize in carving birds and decoys, but there aren't that many who carve fish—and fewer still that will carve trophy fish based on a client's photograph. And while the fish is Sitter's bread-and-butter species, he will carve anything you ask him to do, including other animal species, motorcycles, cars, snakes, guns and even Pokemon characters. "I've also started doing life-sized and miniature head and shoulder carvings of anglers holding up their catch," he said. "If you provide me with the photograph, I can carve it and paint it, right down to the exact color and pattern of the hat and shirt you're wearing. I did a 24-inch wall mount of a person holding a nice fish. These items aren't cheap. I had to charge $600 for that one." Right now he's in the beginning phase of a large experimental carving. "I'm going to carve a life-sized version of myself or my son fishing, complete with rod and reel, and do an acrylic water scene with a fish jumping out of the water with a lure in its mouth," Sitter said. "I figure it will take me about four months to do it. When complete, this will take up an entire wall of a room, and if someone wants to purchase it or one like it, I would have to charge them about $35,000." That's a little too steep for my pocketbook, and frankly is a little out of the norm for his work. His prices actually are quite reasonable. "I try to keep my prices low enough that the average guy can afford to purchase my work," he said. "A nine-inch wall-mount replica of a fish can take me five to six hours to do from start to finish, but my price won't reflect that. I can do it for around $ 100." His work also is unique. He does both interior and exterior carvings and will carve traditional fish for hanging on the wall, for display on lamp bases, as photo holders, business card holders or penholders. Clocks, coffee tables with fish swimming under the glass, as well as fish for outdoor "welcome" signs and door arrangements are other options. He also can include a metal plate with the name of the person catching the fish and denoting the weight and length, and when and where it was caught. "I'm looking for unique ways to display my work," Sitter said. "One of the ways is to carve a fish right into a carving of the lake where it was caught, even in the same location if that's where you want it,"
In addition to traditional carvings, such as the life-sized muskie he is holding at top center, Bill Sitter does a wide variety of work - from the raccoon sign (top right), to a business card holder (bottom center) to the decorative lamp (bottom left). Sitter said. "I can also do a wall-mounted miniature of your cabin or resort with scenery, boats, piers, water and lighted windows." Among his most recent carvings are a six-foot-long, three-dimensional muskie and a full-sized raccoon, both of which are very realistic. Although he is a relative new-comer to carving, Sitter has already been asked to create pieces for Musky Hunter magazine. Midwest Outdoors, Zebco, several television shows and a half-dozen lodges. He also has appeared on a number of outdoor television shows. He does four or five sports shows a year, but admits he doesn't always do a lot of business there. "I show off my work and pass out a lot of photos and business cards, but people want me to carve a fish they've caught, not one that someone else has taken," Sitter said. "I do the shows and hope that the people who pick up the photos and cards will get in touch with me when they've caught a big one." He doesn't need much to begin work on a special project. Provide him with a photograph, the length and girth of the fish and the clarity of the water from where it came, and a life-sized version of your catch is just a few weeks away. He works with basswood, aspen and stairstep stock pine, and uses rotary tools and hand-carving equipment, plus a lot of sandpaper. His plywood version plaques are unique in that he will fashion them any way the customer wants them. They are not mass-produced. Each one is made to order. His "welcome" signs are becoming popular with resorts because they can feature fish, a resort cabin and even the outline of the lake on the same piece of wood. He's currently developing some resin replicas of his original wood-carved fish that can be mass-produced, as well as working on a lure design. "One of the problems with doing originals is that you have to wait for orders," Sitter said. "You can never get ahead. But if you like what you're doing, I guess that's okay."
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
