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Richard Hazard is the manager and coffee roaster at Java Stop in Lodi. Hazard also carves wooden bears to give out to customers as part of a monthly drawing. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)
Richard Hazard shares his artistic talents at Lodi's Java Stop, carving bears for customers
Flakes of sawdust and the smell of cedar floated in the air while the sound of a Stihl chainsaw with a quarter tip carving bar ripped through a log Thursday afternoon in front of Java Stop Coffee Roasting Company. Richard Hazard peered through his safety goggles, and sweat dripped from his ear muffs while the log slowly became a snout.
Hazard, Java Stop's manager and coffee roaster, also carves wooden bears as gifts to the store's customers. It takes him about eight hours to finish a bear. The wood that Hazard uses is from a local lumber company that sometimes donates the wood, depending on its availability. He uses redwood and cedar because of their resistance to cracking. To protect the wood from cracking in the sun it gets coated with U.V. ray shielding marine urethane after it's painted. Marbles are then inserted as eyes for the bears.
One of his most memorable carvings is located in Lockeford near the Vino Piazza. The 8-foot carving, commissioned by the property's owner, was made from a 100-year-old black walnut tree that fell over. It was carved to symbolize stories of the owner's family, who used to sleep in the walnut trees in the winter when giant grizzlies would pass through the property for salmon. The carving depicts a giant grizzly bear with a salmon in its paws, and was named "David" after Richard's brother, because his family thought he resembled a lovable grizzly. David died of heart problems when he was 27.
Another carving is a 600-pound, 8-foot bench held up by two bears in Yucca Valley. It was carved out of the last remaining Pinyon pines that were mostly destroyed in an area wildfire. The bench is now in the property owner's home, to help him remember the forest that once covered his backyard.
After graduating from Lodi High School, Hazard joined the Army, where he served for four-and-a-half years. Hazard met his wife, Nilah, while serving in Germany, where they stayed after his service was finished. All the while Richard watched how people in Italy, Germany and many others in the United States made their coffee.
The two soon found themselves in Wasilla, Alaska, where Nilah was stationed after joining the Army. In 2001, Hazard took classes to become a barista and then opened up Cinnabear Espresso in the small city, which lies about 40 miles from Anchorage.
The location wasn't ideal. People had to drive down a steep driveway to get to the coffee shop. The shop's parking lot was more than an acre of gravel.
Hazard let various vendors set up on the lot to sell their art and other goods. One of the artists was Nick Lavender, who owned Beartooth Carving, a wooden bear carver in the area.
Hazard was intrigued by the carving spectacle and would watch as Lavendar formed Montana-style bear carvings from area wood. With a self-proclaimed artist's heart, Hazard wanted to learn the trade. Without giving Hazard specific instruction, Lavendar told him to "just watch."
Richard Hazard carves a bear out of a cedar log Thursday at Java Stop in Lodi. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)
Soon, Hazard carved his first bear.
"It looked really bad. It was one-and-a-half feet tall and looked like a pot-bellied pig-bear-dog," chuckled Hazard.
Regardless of the unique look, the bear sold within 30 minutes of being outside the shop's door.
With practice, according to Hazard, his carvings got a lot better. Hazard even won first place for bear carving at the 2002 Alaska State Fair, and then third place for the same piece in the garden art section.
Having bad luck with the coffee shop, Hazard eventually closed the store and moved with his wife back to California, where he set up a carving shop in Lockeford. The store was at a big red Tuff Shed in front of the Lockeford True Value Hardware Store.
"We were there until someone decided to drive through the barn," joked Hazard.
Hazard eventually got a job with Bob Casalegno at Java Stop as the coffee shop's roaster. Casalegno wanted to improve the roasting at the shop, so he sent Hazard to Boot Coffee Consulting and Training in Mill Valley. Hazard now works with a variety of coffees shipped from a distributor in the Bay Area, including his favorite coffee, Ethiopian harar.
"I love the blackberry accents in the coffee," said Hazard.
Like many coffee shops, Java Stop included a punch card where free coffee was given away after a certain amount of punches. Hazard eventually realized that the store was giving away thousands of dollars worth of coffee and tried to find a way to save the store money.
The idea came about for using a punch card raffle system where people could opt out of getting free coffee for their punches, and instead be entered into a raffle once a month to win a free bear carving by Hazard. The idea worked, and cut their free coffee costs while still giving something to their customers.
"We want our customers to feel like they're getting something from us. Without them we wouldn't be here," said Hazard.
The bear drawings are once a month, usually around the middle of the month. Customers need three punches in their cards to be entered into the raffle. So far, the store as given away 15 carvings. Along with the specially-carved bears, customers receive a bear birth certificate with the bear's birth date, eye color, fur color, height and weight.
Hazard lives with his wife, Nilah, and their son, Matthew, 24, daughter, Katie, 25, and grandson, Michael, 1, in Lodi.
Richard Hazard, the manager and coffee roaster at Java Stop in Lodi, carves wooden bears to give out to customers as part of a monthly drawing. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)
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Lodian wrote on Aug 4, 2009 12:22 AM:
bmp209 wrote on Aug 3, 2009 10:31 AM:
http://www.katehazard.com/p793362611 "
Carlos wrote on Aug 3, 2009 8:12 AM:
shannonlee05 wrote on Aug 3, 2009 7:08 AM:
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