Jeffro Uitto's sculptures in reclaimed wood from water

There are several artists who work with reclaimed wood from the water, turning it into original sculptures. But the one who particularly impressed me was Jeffro Uitto, a young American sculptor. In his shop in Tokeland, Washington - Knock on Wood - wood recovered from the water comes back to life and gets a second chance.

Natural wooden shapes carried by water

Since high school Uitto has been crafting all kinds of objects using his favourite material, wood. Interestingly, he didn't get that wood from a wood yard or a place where wood was being harvested or processed, but only used pieces of wood salvaged from the surroundings. Every twig, root, piece of wood was salvaged and cleaned and used to build something.

And now Jeffro is doing much the same thing. He collects water-washed, wind- and rain-swept wood scraps and brings them to his workshop in the shop where they are prepared for their new life. Many of the tools Uitto uses to shape the wood to his imagination are made by the artist himself.

The natural shapes of the wood found give Jeffro the idea for his next work. Then, with the project very clear in his mind, he goes after the next piece of wood that needs to fit perfectly. Sometimes it takes months, even years, before the carving takes its final shape.

All the works that leave his studio are treated with the same care and attention, whether it is a piece of furniture, a sculpture or an object that will decorate a corner of the house. Like any artist, Uitto reinterprets the idea of furniture resulting in useful objects with a lot of artistic charge.

Jeffro doesn't just work in the workshop. Many times his clients have asked him to do big, special projects in different places around the world. This has resulted in impressive, large-scale sculptures on the beaches of Hawaii or in Alaska. And here's how wood salvaged from the water often returns to the same water, boasting a new life.

Jeffro Uitto's incredible art has become so well known that the artist is besieged with requests to travel to various places around the world to create exquisite sculptures tailored to the location.