Gary Van Syoc of Emporia, Kansas, likes to sit in his shop as often as he can to work on his newest hobby — a hobby that is turning out beautiful works of wood.

He first took a class at the GRS Training Center in late October 2007 with Bill Janney. Although Gary said Bill's work was a bit intimidating at first, he knew he needed a class if he was ever going to get good at his wood work. Gary had tried his hand at working with wood before the class, but he just didn't have the knowledge or skills to do what he wanted. After taking just one class with Bill Janney, Gary has been creating beautiful works of art.

Gary uses the GRS System 3 for most of his wood carving and engraving work, and works with a variety of wood. For this rose plaque, he used the GRS 850 Rotary handpiece for the outlines and the System 3 impact handpiece. Since his class in 2007, Gary has been creating dozens of wooden bowls, jewelry boxes, art pieces like this rose, and many other things.

See some of his work on his website woodartbygary.com. If you would like to learn how to carve and engrave wood like Gary did, visit the GRS Training Center website to find out more about the Basic Wood course and instructor Bill Janney.