While walking through the traffic and noise of San Francisco last weekend, I found an oasis of peace inside the International Art Museum of America. In their main lobby, a small stream flowed past a whimsical tiny treehouse. Granted, the house would only be perfect for fantasy creatures like gnomes or fairies, but the design captured my heart. The treehouse, sculpted out of a redwood stump, was made by chainsaw artist Steve Blanchard and is just one of his many fairytale structures.
Blanchard began chainsaw carving about 28 years ago in Monterey, California. He uses the chainsaw and various other power tools to carve large stumps into benches, furniture, large Native American figures and animals. His charming fairy homes contain faces of wood spirits, gnarled porches, curved staircases and even working windows and doors. Blanchard has made about 30 of these tiny houses, but only makes about two unique houses every year for sale and they sell for around $25,000 each. The homes make their way into woodland gardens and yards in the Sierra and Lake Tahoe, as well as museums on Market Street in San Francisco.
“I don’t like to have any straight lines in my houses,” Steve said. “There are very few straight lines in nature and I like my houses to blend in with nature and tell a story, but it has to be believable.”
Photos by Steve Blanchard Wood Sculpture and the International Art Museum of America
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]
Could you imagine living in one of these!? I can!!! They are so beautiful!!!!!
OMG….what a talent! And the creations are so AMAZING! What a thrill to be able to see these things in person.
What a great place. I will add it to my list for the next visit to the Bay.
Fantastical! Thanks for the treat.
Wow! What a master of design! Absolutely fascinating! Yeah, I could easly live in one. Wow!
Do you deliver? Really amazing and yes I would love to live in one about 400 sq. ft. only because I can’t climb up into a loft.
Love these pieces of art!!!
Victoria BC
Canada
so so so so so so so inspiring!!! <3
Truly impressive 🙂
These are so beautiful. My only concern is how do they hold up in the long term? I’ve seen large chain saw sculptures locally of animal figures, etc. They tend to crack over time. Would these houses also do that? How would you fix the cracks?
The creativity shown on Tiny House Blog, as usual, is so inspiring!
Thank you.
I’m with Sue; do you deliver?
These are SO well done as well as absolutely amazing, fabulous (and any other superlative you can think of.)
This man is a genius! (And with a chainsaw, no less!)
Talk about talent, and genius! It would be quite a challenge to come up with anything approaching this man’s artistry. Would love to have a people-sized gnome-home along the lines of these whimsical structures!
I am blessed to be able to call this incredible artist a friend. When he first started in Three rivers, Ca way back when. I am Stacy Young’s sister and just happened upon this site. What a trip!