Local woodworker brings Christmas favorite to life
LISBON, Ohio (WKBN) – It's still seven months until Christmas, but just over a month until Christmas in July. A Lisbon man is preparing for both.
He's halfway through a special project to bring a Christmas favorite to life, and his design is a full-size version of a classic toy with a set of three life-sized nutcrackers.
Jerry Tyson's idea came from a Christmas party where people painted smaller models. He started looking at them and felt he could build them bigger. Each of the woodworking masterpieces is about 6 feet tall.'They were not easy. Each one of these are turned from logs that I physically went and cut down trees and milled each one piece by piece, scaling it up from the model,' Tyson said.
The nutcrackers are multiple pieces, all attached. They're made from pine and poplar.Each one took a week to form and put together, followed by up to four days to paint, which was the easiest part.'My favorite one is Father Christmas, and that's because of what he represents,' Tyson said.
The third nutcracker is Lisbon's favorite legend, Johnny Appleseed. Tyson plays the part during the annual festival, living in a small cabin downtown.
The nutcrackers will be on public display in just a few weeks. 'So, the very first place that I know they're going to is the Columbiana County Fair. They'll be in the art building,' Tyson said.
Johnny Appleseed will join Tyson for the September festival. All three will be in the square for Christmas. Each piece carries his signature. He's a one-of-a-kind artist.
Tyson hopes that in a world of 'Made in China', people understand what it took to put these together and appreciate the work.'There's things that we do that feeds our belly, and then there's things that we do that feeds our soul, and this feeds my soul. Just knowing that you can give something to your community that they could enjoy,' Tyson said.
Tyson's plan calls for adding three more nutcrackers, a female and male elf ( Santa's helpers), plus a wooden boy, which doesn't have all the paint and shows off the character of the wood.
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