Real People

MAT-SU - Bish Buckle is a self-proclaimed tinkerer. But more specifically, and according to the license plates on the family vehicles, hes a gigger.

And hes turned his wife into a gigger as well. In their spare time, the couple is likely to be found in their backyard Fairview Loop shop, appropriately dubbed The Knot Shop. This is where the Buckles make their wooden whirligigs flying pigs, Bush planes, purple moose, pink flamingos, teal hippos, all with legs or tails or propellers that whir in the ever-present Matanuska wind.

Sometimes I can sit at the scroll saw for 10 or 12 hours, 59-year-old Bish admitted. Just that morning he had gone out to the shop to do a little work, and before he knew it, hours had slipped by.

For the Buckles, The Knot Shop is a home not so far away from home.

When the couple bought the house and property, The Knot Shop was simply an uninsulated, unwired, crude garage. But Bish had big plans.

Mary thought I was nuts, he recalled.

Cranking up a kerosene heater and wearing layers of clothing to keep out the chill, the Buckles transformed the garage into a woodworking shop. It was completed before work on the house even began.

Its called priorities, Bish said with a grin.

Today The Knot Shop is set for comfort and organization. There are two rooms separated by a wall one for woodworking, the other a sawdust-free paint room. Warm air blows in from a large heater. Neatly labeled plastic canisters line the walls; some read clowns, others moose-llama-horse legs. Tidy cans and squirt bottles of various paints are arranged on shelves.

The shop also includes a large fan for test-running the whirligigs. Sometimes the preliminary designs are flawed and a birds feet will whack its head instead of whirring smoothly. With a few adjustments, the pattern can be modified and the whirligig perfected.

But its not all work and no play for the Buckles.

Each room is equipped with a television so the woodworker and the painter can simultaneously watch their favorite old movies or gardening shows.

On Bishs side of the shop, the roar of a dust-collection system and the machinery drowns out the television. So the perpetual tinkerer solved that problem by running a wire from the television to earphones that he can access from the various work stations. Over the years, he has also constructed wooden cabinets on wheels to arrange scraps of wood and tools.

Formally known as Bishop Buckle, Bish graduated from forestry school. Over the years he has worked in the woods and in bureaucracy from Metlakatla to Washington, D.C. But routers and table saws and smooth sheets of birch have always called to him.

Its been my thing for more than 40 years, he said. His dad was a woodworker, although silversmithing was the family business. When Bish was a boy of 8 or 9 years old, his father began teaching him about some of the woodworking tools.

A few of them can still be found in The Knot Shop, although Bish adds newer, fancier models whenever he can. He jokes about being on a first-name basis with Sears.

Mary came to the craft later in life, coincidentally about the same time Bish came into her life. The two met in the early 1980s while working for the Bureau of Land Management. Mary said her induction into the woodworking shop was inevitable.

He really caused that, she said. Its tough to be around him and not care about it.

Once there, however, Mary brought her own touch to Bishs projects. She took over much of the gluing and painting, and was soon adding a new flair to the whirligigs. She said it all started when she became bored painting one of the moose whirligigs the same old dull brown. So she got a little goofy, and painted the moose purple and green.

And people like them, she said with a smile.

The purple-and-green ungulate has become one of The Knot Shops most popular whirligigs. Other favorites include Bush planes, ladybugs, bumblebees, cows, scarecrows, cats, puffins and loons. The Buckles have invented more unique whirligigs as well Uncle Sam with arms waving in the wind, a football player painted as John Elway and, for the aging pun fan, a long-legged chicken with a spring hanging from it.

The Buckles estimate they sell around 500 whirligigs in a year. They have had booths at the Alaska State Fair and the Saturday Market. Year-round, The Knot Shop whirligigs can be purchased for around $40 at Landscape Supply on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

But they are not The Knot Shops only product. The Buckles also make Adirondack chairs, wishing wells, home decorations and wooden toy cars. And theyre always looking out for new ideas.

Recently the couple talked about taking their whimsical whirligigs and other woodcrafts to the Internet. They are sure the products would sell. In fact, they are afraid they might outsell their ability to make them in their spare time.

So for now, the Buckles are keeping their business in the back yard.

Its an extra little income, Bish said. It keeps us out of mischief . . . keeps us out of the bingo parlors.Photo: Bish Buckle began learning the craft of woodworking as a boy. He says hours can zip by as he cuts pieces of birch plywood at the scroll saw.

Photo by EOWYN LeMAY IVEY.