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These craftsmen are masters of building beautiful furniture from unique wood
As if by magic, this wood becomes beautiful furniture. Not the long, straight, smooth wood you find at the lumberyard, but wood with unique character you normally don’t associate with heirloom-quality furniture.
These artisans use driftwood, willow, small pine, and burlwood—huge slabs of lumber that comes from the stumps and root systems of redwood trees in northern California. Jim Weatherly has been making beautiful furniture from willow for more than 20 years.
“It all started when a friend wanted to buy some bent willow furniture,” he says. “I went along, bought a chair, and took it home to study how it was made. Then I went about building one myself.” Weatherly harvests willow in creek beds. Each piece is carefully selected for diameter, length, and shape. The furniture must be made while the sticks are still moist and pliable. Once the wood dries, it becomes strong and rigid.
Is Weatherly an artist or a craftsman as he plies his trade? He explains that a good eye is important on the design side, and the manufacturing requires the skills of a craftsman. “I guess I’m a little of both,” he says. One of Tim Haas’ log beds carries a price tag of $600-700. But unlike most beds or other mass-manufactured furniture, those made by Haas Log Works in Deerwood, Minn., are all one-of-a-kind pieces of beauty.
“We do it all by hand,” says Haas. “We cut the pine ourselves. The logs are peeled by hand using a drawknife. Fitting and assembly are also done by hand.”
Building one of a kind
Haas has been building furniture full-time for the past six years. Most of his furniture is built to specific customer requirements. The only advertising he does is on his Web site, haaslogworks.com.
“Satisfied customers are our best salesmen,” Haas says. “We rely on word-of-mouth to get our message out, and it’s working well. Another advantage we have is that we live in ‘cabin country.’ There are lots of people from the Minneapolis area who have cabins up here, and our style of furniture fits in really well.”
After working in several jobs in his early years, Haas has found one that is a release for his creative talent and provides the satisfaction of being able to say, “I did this all myself.”
Burly furniture
Jim Parodi knew he wanted to be a woodworker by the time he was seven. He watched his grandfathers—one a finish carpenter, the other a farmer with a sawmill on his place—and was fascinated by the many things they could build and the satisfaction they gained from their work.
After graduating from high school, he traveled from Califorinia to Oregon. Along the way he became fascinated by the huge redwood root systems that washed ashore along the Pacific Ocean. He learned that woodworkers were turning them into beautiful furniture.
Fast forward to 2005
Parodi’s thriving business, Artisan Burlwood, sits near a high-traffic corner in Berkeley, Calif. Here he designs, manufactures, then displays unique burlwood furniture in the showroom.
“We do it all right here,” he says of the facility. “Suppliers bring in the root systems on semi-trailers. We saw it into slabs and stack it to dry. Then we build and finish
each item. No two are the same.”
Satisfied customers refer a lot of business to Artisan Burlwood. Local sales are generated by traffic through the showroom. The company’s Web site, www.artisanburlwood.com, attracts business from across the United States and throughout the world.
Parodi’s products are reasonably priced, particularly considering the time it takes to process the wood. A popular item, a five-foot coffee table, costs around $750.
Driftwood is the preferred medium in Don Patrick’s Orlando, Fla., furniture shop. “I used to collect it myself,” he says, “but now I buy most of it from fishermen and crabbers who collect it in their off-season.”
After completing a degree in business, Patrick worked a couple of jobs before he discovered his furniture-building talent. “I really enjoy what I do,” he says. It is satisfying to know that I have made a customer happy and that my creation will occupy a prominent spot in his or her home.”
Driftwood Decor, as the business is known, maintains a well-stocked show room in Orlando. Many sales are generated at arts-and crafts shows around Florida, and a very informative Web site, driftwooddecor.com, helps move these unique creations out the door.
Patrick’s creations are very reasonably priced. A four- to five-foot coffee table costs between $750 and $850. Not bad for a piece of art that you can actually use.
Art or craft?
Whether you deem these furniture makers artists, craftsmen, or some combination of the two, few would argue that they are truly magicians turning seemingly worthless wood into things of beauty.
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