Caledonia Artist Creates Unique Fireplace Covers And Carved Art

Only five other women in the country, besides Sherry Martin, grab the cord, rev up a chainsaw and ebb away at pieces of wood to make art professionally.

She gets a kick out of the guys who stand around her at art and craft shows and exclaim, "That's a chick!" That’s why she started calling herself a chick with a chainsaw, she’s doing something cutting edge and breaking new ground for women – although she knows doing wood carvings is hardly the frontier for the liberation movement.

But that’s not the only unique art Martin is making these days.

She also hopes to patent her fireplace covers. She uses a process similar to mosaic, but she uses shattered tempered glass and paint to put a pretty face on a useful, energy efficient cover that prevents fireplaces from being drafty old things. And because she uses items like the doors off of refrigerators used in grocery stores and old picture frames, she keeps those items out of landfills – something she calls up cycling.

“It’s the new thing, you know. It’s taking an object that is being discarded or not used anymore, and making it better than it was,” she said.

Martin has 100s of frames. She fits the art to the frame, not the other way around like a lot of other artists. Now, she’s got a patent pending on her product. To learn more, click here to visit her website at Shattered Glass Designs.