The Wood Den, a Festus business that offered original chainsaw woodcarving pieces, has closed.
Ryan Meyer, the woodcarving artist who owned the business at 2 N. Sixth St., said he had to close up shop because he had a stroke earlier this year.
Meyer, 53, a retired Festus R-6 teacher, auctioned off all his inventory of woodcarvings.
“We shut the doors to the Wood Den (on Oct. 11),” he said in a phone interview. “We had an auction (on Oct. 12). Everything’s gone.”
Meyer said he continues to recuperate from the stroke he had in February.
“Realistically, I can’t keep up with making things and running a business,” he said. “It was really the only decision to make.”
Meyer’s shop had become something of a local landmark, with giant wood statues of everything from an oversized chair to a Marine to movies characters displayed outside the building.
He said he rented the building.
Meyer said he carved outhouses from wood years ago, but not as art pieces.
“We used to make those and sell them for people’s use,” he said.
Meyer said he got into woodcarving in 1992 while serving in the U.S. Marines.
“I started in it just to pass the time. I got into it with just a pocketknife and a chisel and did small wood carvings,” he said. “I’m self-taught.”
Meyer said he enjoyed woodcarving.
“I like creating things for people, working with my hands,” he said.
Meyer worked as a first-grade teacher at Festus Elementary School from 1995 to 2016.
Numerous people have posted words of praise for Meyer’s work or expressed disappointment that the shop closed on The Wood Den’s Facebook page.
“We had a good following,” Meyer said.
He said he continues to rehabilitation therapy after the stroke and would like to return to woodcarving at some point.
“I’m not going to be going back into business, but I might get back into woodcarving just for the pleasure of it,” he said.
Meyer and his wife, Denise, live in Pacific.