Blast from the past

Published 11:28 am Tuesday, March 10, 2009

It’s not your average wood sculpture.

When Zacharya Leck’s cedar art was displayed in Eastsound last week, it caused many to stop and comment.

“It’s a departure from milled lumber,” Leck says. “It has a distinct handmade flair that harkens back to the old days.”

Leck, a metal smith and sculptor, used Orcas-grown cedar and hand carved it with tools designed to delicately carve large pieces of wood. He then installed round rocks underneath the posts to prevent the wood from rotting.

“It’s an old Japanese technique,” he said.

The day after it was on display in town, Leck delivered the sculpture to its permanent home on Enchanted Forest Road, where it will be a grape trellis in an Orcas resident’s garden.