ENZO Coppola can carve almost anything out of a single piece of wood, a skill he learned from his father, Francesco, who was a craftsman from Italy. Watching the 55-year-old work shows the tranquillity between man and nature.
His extraordinary talent for making items out of wood has now led him down a charitable path. Coppola carved a football coats of arms and auctioned it on Facebook to raise funds for Highway Hospice. All profits made by the auctioning of the item goes directly to Hospice, which provides care for the terminally ill.
His most recent carving of the Merseyside club’s coat of arms, which included the ‘liver bird’, a mythical creature, raised R7 000 for the charity.
“I certainly didn’t expect it to take off the way it did. It’s amazing and extremely humbling to see such a positive response. For me, it’s a way of using my passion to raise funds for charity. After my initial post on Facebook of the Liverpool crest, one man donated R1 000 straightaway to Highway Hospice. The Liverpool piece took me about three weeks to complete because I was doing it in my spare time.
“I carved the Manchester United emblem out of kiaat and the Liverpool one out of walnut timber. After that the bidding process got underway, it just kept getting higher and higher. I lost my brother to cancer recently and Hospice looked after him and another friend of mine who was very sick as well. They do so much good work and I wanted to raise awareness for them and just give back,” he said.
Coppola has also been commissioned to do Manchester United, AC Milan and Durban City coats of arms, and plans to do more emblems to auction off for charity.
“Carving is in my blood, it’s something my dad is renowned for. He carved every single piece of furniture in our family home in Morningside. It’s something that I’ve always found therapeutic. Each and every cut is made by hand. I don’t use machines and every single piece or subject is unique,” he said.
For more information, email Enzo on enzo.coppola777@gmail.com.
