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Wood carving

Tim J. Taylor cuts out a new soundboard for a guitar he's working on at his home in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, March 21, 2013. Taylor started building his own guitars about 14 months ago, he says, because he decided that he wanted to be able to pass something down to his grandchildren. He's now working on one for each of them. (AP Photo/Daily Herald, Sarah Weiser)

Provo man holds world by guitar string

Cody Clark Provo Daily Herald, The Daily Herald

Last updated Saturday, March 30, 2013 - 10:51pm

PROVO — Lots of people have taught themselves how to play a guitar. There’s almost certainly a considerably smaller number of guitar enthusiasts, on the other hand, who have taught themselves how to make a guitar — as in build one from scratch.

You probably can’t just pick up a kit for that at your average hobby store.

Provo resident and self-taught guitar player Tim Taylor didn’t even need a kit when he decided on a whim last year to take his interest in six-stringed sound makers to the next level.

Instead, Taylor, 65, followed a time-honored approach more often reserved for things like cars, or vacuum cleaners, that have standard replaceable parts: Find one that works and take it apart to see what’s inside.

Hobbies, Utah, Wood carving, Music Read more Comments

(MATTHEW ARDEN HATFIELD/Standard-Examiner) Lee Armstrong (right) and Alice Swimm look at two bears and a bench carved out of trees along the Ogden River Parkway in Ogden on Tuesday.

Carved bears court wedding proposals at MTC Park

JaNae Francis Standard-Examiner

Last updated Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 9:38pm

OGDEN — An addition to the MTC Park in Ogden is a cute attraction as well as a monument to the volunteers who serve there each week.

A carved female and a male bear, facing each other with a bench between them, are adorned with the words “Love Hill” encased in a heart and the instructions “propose here.” Both bears have the wide eyes of those contemplating marriage.

“I thought because they are posing for pictures all the time and weddings, something romantic would fit in,” said Dennis Miller, who carved the bears and made the bench between them, then built steps up the hill to the creation.

Bears, Ogden Botanical Gardens, Parks, Utah, Wedding proposal, Wood carving, Featured Read more Comments

KERA WILLIAMS/Standard-Examiner
Burt McDonald works on part of the molding for the Brigham City LDS Temple.

Wood carver extraordinaire

Becky Wright Standard-Examiner

Last updated Sunday, September 4, 2011 - 9:15am

The shaggy head of a bison juts out from the armoire, its horns surrounded by thick, wavy hair. The animal's heavy, cloven hooves are where ordinary furniture legs would be -- coaxed out of the wood by Burt McDonald's carving tools.

The piece of furniture captures the feel of a mountain lodge on a grand scale.

Getting the look and feel just right is important to McDonald.

"I'm creating an atmosphere in somebody's home," he said.

McDonald makes cabinets and other furniture, but his specialty is hand-carved decorative wood -- mantles with relief sculptures of pine cones or elk, doors covered in leaves or lions, chests adorned in flowers and, yes, armoires with bison hooves.

"If you can think it, he can do it," said interior designer Marian Rockwood, of MHR Design in Park City. "He's a real artist. I give him a concept, and he can see it in his head and then executes it so beautifully I can't believe it."

Features, Wood carving, Featured Read more Comments