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Photo by Andy Atkinson Jim Burke carves an eagle while Rogue Valley Mall shoppers watch him work. Chainsaw sculptor works in a box By DAVID PRESZLER People planning to follow their ears to the chainsaw carving display at the Rogue Valley Mall over the weekend had little luck. The average 8-year-old pestering his mom for Christmas presents made more noise than Jim Burke did in transforming wood chunks into bears, eagles and trees. The 55-year-old Jacksonville man sent the sawdust flying within a tiny, soundproof box that he made about a decade ago. "The first 10 years I carved, I didn't have the box," says Burke. "People came to see me and loved to watch me carve but didn't like the sawdust and the noise." "We don't know of any other carver that does this," Burke's wife, Susan, says of the box. "I told him it was a dumb idea but I was wrong." Not only is the box easy on the ears and the janitors, it allows spectators a much closer look. Open-air carvers generally have a 5- to 6-foot boundary for safety reasons; people watching Burke can get within 3 feet or so. The box features a fan that blows the sawdust down and a public address system so that Burke can talk to spectators while he works. He precarves some of the basic forms so people don't have to wait long to see him finish a piece. The smaller carvings take him less than an hour, the bigger ones less than a day. Burke carves primarily in redwood and cedar. The chainsaw is his tool of choice but he uses a grinder to do eyes and a sander here and there. "I try to do 85-90 percent of every piece with a chainsaw," he says. Burke grew up in the Rogue Valley and moved back last year to be closer to his parents. He got the carving bug about 20 years ago in Portland at a show similar to the one he staged Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the mall. "I was really fascinated with it," he recalls. "I asked one of those guys if he would teach me and he said, `no,' so I went home and taught myself." Burke started with a few basic designs and has stretched his repertoire to include 200 designs -- everything from leaping trout and flying ducks to boots and pine trees. "The boot is our bread and butter," says Susan Burke of the floppy boot design. By Sunday afternoon, eight of the nine boots he made for the weekend had been sold. Before returning to the Rogue Valley, Burke would spend most of his time carving at craft shows and schools. He's cut back since moving to Jacksonville but did several shows at area schools last year and the three-day stint at the mall. Though the carving show wrapped up Sunday, Burke's products are still available at the Lithia Artisans shop in the mall. "They make unusual gifts," he says. "When you can give someone something that is handmade it's extra special." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA