Shaun Redeau has worked in construction most of his life, and while living in Alaska, he bought a home that needed furniture.

The problem was the stuff in stores was cheaply made and didn’t fit the spaces in his house, so he started making his own tables and chairs and whatever else he needed. 

And that, as any woodworker knows, led to piles of scraps. Scraps are a quandary. They’re almost never the right size for anything else on one hand, but you don’t want to throw them away or burn them in the wood stove on the other hand.

So he started out making puzzles from them and then started making more refined woodworking, incorporating resins into the wood to create sculptures that pop to life, particularly in the sunlight.

He spends hours on end in the winter months working in a tiny shop off his home in Columbia Heights. He starts with a sketch, often embellished from simple clip art and then adds his own style to the work. There’s a trout leaping from a stream, a grizzly bear paw print, a buffalo on the prairie, to name a few.

“It’s all an experiment,” he says with a smile.

Each piece is probably handled 20 times from start to finish, with multiple sandings and coats of finish until they shine. He deftly blends colors into the epoxy so the gradations of colors is seamless and flow like ink dropped into water.

He’s used up most of his own scraps and now goes up the road to RBM Lumber, which sells bundles of ends and boards for just a few bucks apiece.

Redeau works the summer months building trails as a subcontractor for Montana Made Trails. They’re currently working up the Cedar Flats area just north of Columbia Falls.

He focuses on the artwork in the winter.

His home shop is very small, even by home shop standards. There’s just enough room for two people to stand inside.

At this scale, however, there is one thing there isn’t very much of: Scraps.

“I try to use everything I can,” he said.

Redeau shows his work in the summer months at numerous outdoor venues and farmers’ markets across the valley. He also has a website at srcreativewoodart.com and on Facebook at:www.facebook.com/people/SR-Creative-Wood-Art