Des Moines man turns a tree stump into a work of art

Two trees damaged in the 2007 ice storm now stand as magnificent horse sculptures.
 
The 75-year-old White Pine trees once towered over Clarke County residents Larry and Linda Henry's property, but the storm stripped the trees of their branches.

After a year of prodding from her husband and the electrical company, Linda Henry finally consented to cutting the trees down and seven foot stumps remained for a year.

Larry Prine, owner of Chainsaw Sculpting by Prine, turned the stumps into the works of art on Oct. 14.

Prine's hobby of carving wood started 35 years ago and since then he has never killed a tree for his work. Instead, Prine uses dying or dead trees.

Each year, Prine carves 30 to 50 stumps.

Although he has years of experience under his belt, it was only Prine's second time sculpting horses. Prine worked from the family's horses and a drawing to create the life-like carving.

The Henry family said they couldn't be happier with the outcome.

"It couldn't look any worse than a stump," Linda Henry joked.

Prine said in all his years of carving tree stumps, there have been some near mistakes, but he hasn't had any complaints.

"There's no turning back with stumps," he said. "If you mess something up, you get in the car before someone notices," he joked.

Prine said carving tree stumps is becoming more popular in Iowa.

"For me, it's growing all the time," he said. "I just get more and more of it. All of my business comes from word of mouth, and I don't think I could handle it if I advertised.

A chance encounter helped the Linda Henry make the connection with Prine, who lives in Des Moines.

Phyllis Anderson, a resident from Lucas County, was at a local store developing pictures of Prine working on logs she had donated to him. Anderson said the wood was from a 150-year-old tree also destroyed in the 2007 ice storm.

Anderson's dead wood was turned into sculptures of Indians, bears and a mountain man.

Anderson showed the pictures to Linda Henry and the idea of the horses began to form.

Prine charges anywhere from $100 to $300 a foot, depending on how many details are in the artwork. The final product can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000.

It took Prine nearly three days to complete the first horse carving, but he hoped the work would go faster on the second stump.