LOCAL ARTISAN
clients, and that’s where his artistry comes into play. One of Fedeczko’s recent pieces was a custom entry unit for a home in Wildridge. To highlight the wood’s natural beauty, he carved each shelf, cubbyhole and panel from solid material, then fit the pieces together with traditional cabinet joints. For smaller projects, Fedeczko suggests furniture and architectural accents: custom headboards, bar tops, coffee tables, ceiling panels, trim packages. It’s a simple way to imbue a room with character, minus stains or paints, and the wood lends itself to rough, natural edges — the cornerstone of a high-alpine aesthetic. “I think artists and folks in 28
VAIL VALLEY HOME | SEPTEMBER 2014
the valley are demanding it because of the intrinsic beauty,” says Kyle Jansson, a former local who co-owns KellyK Wood, which sells cribbage boards made from Colorado beetle-kill. “It’s in very high demand — it turns something functional into something visual. Now it becomes a conversation piece, with people wondering, ‘What kind of wood turns so blue?’” Yet beetle-kill has the same limitations as other soft pine. It’s not sturdy enough for high-traffic areas – say, wood flooring in a kitchen or entryway — and even after it’s milled, the wood has a tendency to crack and shrink. Before beginning a project, Fedeczko always suggests researching the wood source. He
gets most of his beetle-kill pine from Hesters Log and Lumber, a Kremmling-based mill, but much of the lumber found at hardware stores comes from as far as Canada. If the locally sourced angle is a must, just ask — it’s easy enough to find material killed, harvested and transformed in Colorado. “I don’t see this becoming a
mass-produced material,” Fedeczko says. “This is a unique, beautiful, charactered piece of Colorado that won’t last forever, and that’s a very big attraction. It might not be an heirloom piece of furniture — it won’t necessarily last for generations — but the crafting can make it feel that way.”
PHOTOS BY ANTHONY THORNTON AND GREG FEDECZKO
NOW IT BECOMES A CONVERSATION PIECE, WITH PEOPLE WONDERING, ‘WHAT KIND OF WOOD TURNS SO BLUE?’”