WARREN Luree Magee put down her scissors and walked away from styling hair after 25 years in the business only to pick up another cutting tool, this one a bit larger, louder and gas-powered.
''I dropped my clippers for saws,'' Magee said.
Chain saws, that is.
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Special to the Tribune Chronicle
Luree Magee, a woodcarver, shows off a display of her work. She will appear at the fair.
And what she does is cut wood, like people often do with a chain saw, but she's not cutting down trees nor turning logs into firewood. Instead, she's a hard woodcarver, sculpting wood into a variety of animal statues and outdoor pieces, like benches.
''Handling the tool was fine,'' she said. ''It was just changing mediums for me.''
She brings her skill this week to the Trumbull County Fair, where she'll perform three to four carvings a day at the Historical Area off the main midway. It runs Tuesday through Sunday at the fairgrounds in Bazetta.
Fair officials have said they are hoping to reconnect visitors and fair-goers with the agricultural industry of the state and the county.
What sets the Trumbull County Fair apart from all the others, said Jan Solomon, junior fair coordinator, is that it is still a fair.
''It's not over commercialized. It's a fair. It still has that down-home feeling,'' she said, noting this year the fair is doing a big push on agriculture with a them on 'Farming Locally, Thinking Globally.'''
Including having a wide variety of popular fair foods, rides and games, the fair will, of course, once again offer an assortment of entertainment, including crowd favorites such as the demolition derby and tractor pulls.
New to this year's fair will be the addition of a live rodeo show put on by Broken Horn Rodeo, featuring bull riding, bucking broncos, barrel racing, steer wrestling and team roping.
As usual, the fair will feature several motor sports events including races for B.R.P. Modifies and Pure Stock cars as well as late models and E-Modes.
A truck and tractor pulls will be held on Tuesday and Saturday, featuring everything from garden tractors to diesel 4X4 trucks and big rig semis.
A fireworks display will be held on the final evening of the fair, Sunday.
And as far as woodcarving entertainment goes, Magee also will be doing what she called a ''speed carve,'' of 30 to 45 minutes so spectators ''will see an end product.'' Before she begins, there's a brief introduction and when Magee is done cutting, there's time for questions.
The wood is provided locally and the pieces will be auctioned at the end of the fair. Proceeds from the auction stay with the fair.
Magee said she transitioned from haircutting to woodcarving about 10 years ago. She was just burned out and growing up in Seattle, where ''you trip over carvers out there,'' and in the culture of being outdoors and learning early how to use a saw, the moved was natural.
She works full-time carving and is on the road for most of the year, mostly in the U.S. and sometimes in Canada. She's carved in Akron and Columbiana County before, she said.
Magee said what she sculpts she often picks based on her location, but some contracts require her to carve certain items. She knows what she'll be carving here at the fair, but won't tell.
''That would ruin the surprise,'' she said.