ETCHED IN BONE

PALMER — It took retirement for Lewis Bradley to carve out his niche in life.

It wasn’t until 1999, when he retired from a 26-year career as a physical education teacher and coach with the Mat-Su Borough School District that Bradley found an artistic outlet to express his love for Alaska wildlife. Nearly a decade later, the 63-year-old Palmer resident has become a talented and prolific carver.

Birds, moose, sheep, musk ox, buffalo and caribou are among his favorite subjects, and also provide the medium for his art.

Bradley carves their horns, antlers and bones, spending hours behind a filter mask and magnifying goggles serenaded by the high-pitched mechanic whine of his pneumatic rotary carving tools. When not in his workshop carving out his next piece, Bradley and Carol, his wife of 43 years, relax in their living room surrounded by hundreds of horn and antler carvings, along with dozens of stuffed heads and a large buffalo hide rug.

Bradley’s passion for Alaska wildlife and carving is evident, as he energetically describes both.

“It’s also probably an extension of my (other outdoors interests). I love to hunt and fish and spend a lot of time in the mountains. I just love the outdoors. You gotta have a passion for whatever you’re doing. If you don’t have that passion, do something else.”

Sometimes it’s Bradley’s imagination that gets a little more wild than his subjects, Carol said. In addition to his trademark Alaska wildlife figures, Bradley also carves wood golf club heads, scary masks and even transformed a 16-pound composite bowling ball into an elephant head.

“Don’t ask me what he was thinking with that bowling ball,” his wife said.

Northward bound

Like many others who find a permanent home in the Mat-Su Valley, Bradley was introduced to Alaska’s wildlife through the Army. While in the service in 1968, Bradley made his first trip to the 49th state, and when he returned home he made a deal with his wife.

“I said, ‘Give me five years back in Alaska, then if we want to go home, we will,’” he said.

That was 37 years ago.

Over the decades, Bradley nurtured his passion for the outdoors, becoming a prolific hunter. He’s even writing a book about sheep hunting. He also makes many trips “farming” for his carving materials. He finds much of the sheep, moose and other horns and antlers he carves, but will also buy particularly nice horns from other sources. He’s also been known to trade carvings for more raw materials.

“It’s kind of like gold mining,” he said of prospecting for horns.

On one such expedition, he uncovered a gigantic sheep rack that he said is close to a world record. Because of the size and majesty of the horns, Bradley decided not to carve them and display them naturally.

Keeping busy

When Bradley first retired from the school district, his carving became a way to use his time productively and keep busy. Although he sells some of his work, Bradley said he doesn’t want to make a profession out of carving. If he can earn enough money to pay for his materials and tools, he’s happy.

“I loved what I was doing when I was coaching and teaching, and I love what I’m doing now that I’m retired,” he said. “I know one guy who retired, and all he did was watch TV and drink beer, and he was dead in seven years.”

From belt buckles to pins to larger display pieces, there isn’t much Bradley won’t carve. And although he wears a bulky protective filter mask and magnifying goggles while in his workshop, the former teacher said he hardly notices the physical constraints once he’s at work.

“I can go four hours and, poof, it’s gone just like that,” he said. “I’ll be lying in bed at night and I’ll have an idea for a carving. I’ll get up and write it down.”

In the beginning, Bradley said he would often spend up to 10 hours a day carving, but then it started to feel more like a job and he scaled back some. His workshop was also located underneath the couple’s bedroom. Coupled with Lewis’ penchant for carving late into the night, his wife said the air-driven tools made it sound “like there was a dental office right under our bedroom.”

Now with a workshop located far away from the rest of the living quarters of the Bradley home, Carol said her husband is as active now as he was before he retired.

“I have trouble keeping up with him,” she said, adding she didn’t know her husband was artistically gifted until he took up carving. “I’m really in awe he has all this talent.”

Refining his art

Nearly a decade into his retirement, Bradley continues to refine his art. He has become an expert on the tools he uses — mainly air-driven rotary devices that use finely crafted carving bits. Some bits are so small he needs to use magnifying lenses to do intricate details.

Connected to a homemade venting system, Bradley uses belt sanders, a band saw, scroll saw, knife sander, drill press and a variety of rotary tools that take any of dozens of precision bits arranged on his workbench.

“You can’t have inferior tools,” he said.

To create a bone or horn carving, he first selects a piece. Then he uses carbon paper to trace a pre-drawn pattern onto the horn or antler.

A pattern — Bradley has made and collected hundreds — is key, he said. Without it, the proportions of the animal being depicted in the carving would be off. It’s a lesson he said he learned from his first carving, a ram in a sheep’s horn.

“I realized I got the neck too skinny,” he said. “I don’t free-hand. Well, I do some, but the actual animal itself all has to do with proportion.”

That proportion and attention to detail is why Bradley could turn his carving into a money-making operation if he wanted.

“I have pieces that I keep and if I don’t sell it, no problem,” he said. “I don’t push my stuff. I don’t want it to become like a job when I’m chained to it for 10 hours a day. If you have to carve for a living, it becomes like an assembly line, carving the same things over and over. … I want to carve for myself.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.