In Sandbridge, hand-crafting beautiful representations of nature from driftwood

BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE

SANDBRIDGE — John LePine never considered himself either an artist or a birder, but he has the skills and the imagination to transform an irregularly shaped piece of driftwood into a whimsical bird using only band saws, files and a few other simple tools.

LePine, owner of Back Bay Birds, spends about six hours a day in the woodshop behind his Sandbridge home sculpting birds from pieces of driftwood that he and family members have collected.  The birds, which he markets at local shows, range from tiny hummingbirds to herons and egrets, and they include life-sized birds and miniature owls and pelicans.

LePine is quick to point out that he’s not a typical carver, but uses files rather than knives to sculpt the birds. Unlike some bird carvers, he doesn’t design an entire bird from a single piece of driftwood. Instead, he often files the bird’s head, beak, and body from individual pieces, then puts them together.  

“I let the shape of the driftwood dictate what part it’s going to be,” he said, holding up a dark piece of wood. “I’ve looked at this piece hundreds of times, and I can’t decide what part it’s going to be. I may just use it as a base because I really don’t want to cut into it.”

Although he says that he was never a birder, LePine observes the birds around his house and shop, as well as on the beach and the shores of Back Bay. His wife, Beth LePine, is a bird enthusiast, and she encourages him in his observations and his creations. He also sometimes consults pictures in books to help guide his work.

LePine is a retired educator. He was a shop teacher at Kempsville Middle School, then called Kempsville Junior High School, and he always enjoyed woodworking and spent his summer vacations doing construction work. Still, he was more into the physical work and never considered himself a sculptor until he saw a driftwood bird for sale at a community event soon after he and his wife moved to Sandbridge.

He was intrigued enough to try his hand at it. Though the first couple of birds were perhaps less than perfect, Beth LePine encouraged him to continue, and he persevered until he was able to fashion birds to his satisfaction.

“Beth is like my cheerleader,” John LePine said. “The first bird that I made was kind of crude, but she said, ‘You can do it. I know that you can.’ And I think that one of the things that I love about driftwood is that it doesn’t have to be so exacting.”

LePine has been carving since 2008, and although he used to market the birds on consignment at local businesses, he now sells primarily at craft shows. He recently sold at Lynnhaven River Now’s Holiday Market.  

The driftwood used for carving comes from shorelines as far away as the Great Lakes and as close as Back Bay or, occasionally, even Sandbridge Beach.

“Once in a while, I find a prize on the beach,” LePine said, but most of the wood that washes up there is pieces of lumber from a pier or house rather than the tree branches that LePine needs for his work.

That wood, he said, is more likely to appear on the shore of an inland body of water near a wooded area. 

Locally, he said, Munden Point is a good place to forage for wood, but he also has wood that has been sent to him by relatives living in upstate New York or in New Hampshire. One room of his woodshop is filled with completed birds, and LePine’s own house is also decorated with them, he said. 

Beth LePine remains a very enthusiastic collector of her husband’s work, and she helps him to promote his creations and set up his shows.

“I love his work,” she said.  “I look at it and say, ‘Oh, it’s so beautiful.’ He’s quite a craftsman and does a beautiful job.”

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