With sons Declan and Kieran carrying on the family carpentry tradition in his home workshop, Charlie now spends his time alongside them making timber crafts as his hobby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charle and his wife Kathy welcomed the Leinster Express \/ Laois Live<\/a> to the workshop, where the breathtaking horses are pride of place, alongside many other intricately made wooden creations.<\/p>\n Charlie and Kathy Burke with some of the wooden models and puzzles he has made.<\/p>\n His first full size horse was a gift for Kathy, calling it Katcha.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I finished it in about the year 2000. I exhibited him in the Tullamore Show, the ploughing championships, in Trim, in Emo Court, but I got tired of bringing him around. He is hollow, we wrote an account of local events at the time on a sheet of paper inside, like the new Emo school being built,” he said.<\/p>\n Standing 16 and a half hands high – or 5’6 to its withers, it is made of glossy mahogany. Katcha is now stabled safely in the workshop.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I love the horse, there’s no doubt. I think it’s gorgeous. the two of them are,” Kathy said.<\/p>\n Katcha meeting actual horses.\u00a0<\/p>\n The second horse is under construction, this time made of layers of thick plywood.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I made a small one from plywood, and saw how it brought out the layers of colour in the wood. I thought it would be nice to do it full size. It’s not rocket science,” a modest Charlie said.<\/p>\n Using the same outline as Katcha, Charlie cut and glued multiple timber layers, then planed and sanded them down to a smooth curved surface, with the coloured layers of wood creating beautiful patterns.<\/p>\n Charlie Burke with his second full size horse under construction.<\/p>\n It is still in progress and he expects to spend hundreds of hours working on it.<\/p>\n “It’s only a past-time. It keeps your head together, I don’t count the hours I spend on it. I started it last November, some days I spend five hours, then might leave it for a week. Sometimes the less you do, the less harm you do,” Charlie said.<\/p>\n Charlie with his plywood horse under construction, and in the background the timber template, decorated with pinecones.<\/p>\n Inside this horse is also hollow and it has been filled as a family time capsule, with his children Teresa, Fiona, Deirdre, Cathal, Kieran and Declan all adding their own messages, as well as all 15 grandchildren. The couple also have two great grandchildren.<\/p>\n “All the family have put bits and pieces in, photos, letters, newspapers, the Leinster Express has gone in there too.\u00a0Our neighbour Jimmy Kelliher put coins in. The tail isn’t done yet if we want to post in anything more at the back,” Charlie said.<\/p>\n He is following advice by Mountmellick artisan painter and Paint Store owner Con Farrell on the finish.<\/p>\n Read next: Laois tech school enjoy reunion<\/a><\/p>\n “Con recommended rather than varnish, using a special oil, to let the timber breathe. It’s very expensive, he said he used it on the Aga Khan’s stables.”<\/p>\n Charlie also makes deer sculptures, inspired by the shapes of fallen branches he finds in the woods. They adorn the roadside in Emo and during Covid he put on a special roadside display of a family of deer, with a big sign supporting frontline workers. It hit the headlines when they were stolen.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “They found one later, standing outside the Pint O’Port pub in Portarlington, they took them for the craic I suppose. They were broken several times too, we used to trim the grass around them,” Charlie recalled.<\/p>\n “I like making the garden deers, Kathleen made them with me at the start. I sold a lot of them, they went to England and all over. They are so simple to make,” he said.<\/p>\n Charlie with a model car he made for his daughter Teresa.<\/p>\n The toys and puzzles are given as family gifts.\u00a0<\/p>\n “My daughter Teresa got the templates, I’ve made a lorry, a Lamborgini car, and the puzzles, I enjoy making them,” he said.<\/p>\n John and Kathleen Sullivan with their table made by Charlie Burke.\u00a0<\/p>\n One lovely commission is a table made out of a slice of a 100 year old Lawson Cypress from Ross House in Oughterard. The base is made from a charred oak whiskey barrel, turned inside out.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260505_151857-1778058690605.jpg\")
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