Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990 TAG: 9007240185
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Long
No one watches over a worker's shoulders as he bends a piece of metal to fit a chandelier, no one shouts orders, no one eyes the time clock during lunch.
The people work together in this craft house, tucked inside an old roller rink off U.S. 221 in Floyd County.
They play together, too.
A volleyball net is set up in a grassy field behind the building. Horseshoe pits sit alongside the Little River, just a few yards down from picnic tables where employees can work on such smaller tasks as cleaning or polishing metals.
Coleen Cotton, the company's self-proclaimed "mother hen," prepares lunch for all 11 employees once a week.
And the workers even have their own "real good swimming hole" downstream a ways, said Woody Crenshaw, who owns the company with his wife, Jackie. A few times, it's been used for baptisms.
"This place has always been a community spot - it seemed like it needed to stay that way," Jackie Crenshaw said.
So no one minds if area residents shove their canoes in the water outside the workshop. And no one minds if the workers do a little fishing there during their free time.
"We wanted to try to provide the most employee-friendly environment we could - for ourselves as well as the employees," added Woody Crenshaw. "Our attitude about this whole project, more than anything else, is that we're creating a lifestyle. The river, this building, this spot - they're all reasons we moved here."
The company, which makes custom light fixtures for churches, hotels, malls and individuals, originally was owned by Woody Crenshaw's father in Raleigh, N.C. The couple took over the business just over a year ago and moved it here.
"Our business has no walk-in trade," Crenshaw said. "We order our materials so we could just move to the mountains and take our business with us. A place like Floyd is not suitable for some businesses, but it's great for us."
Jackie Crenshaw said she and Woody had wanted to live in Floyd since visiting years ago when they lived in Giles County. They were attracted partly by the beauty of the area and partly by its people.
There is a slew of artists and artisans, she said, as well as a strong work ethic. "We wanted everyone we hired to be living in Floyd County," Woody Crenshaw said. "We could have more impact on the local economy that way."
The company's employees do live in Floyd, but not everyone has a background in arts or crafts.
"We wanted team players, people who were quality-oriented and understood how to work with their hands," Woody Crenshaw said. "It's worked out pretty well for us."
It's worked out well for employees, too, said Wayne Bradburn, who started working at the company in April.
"There's a feeling of a family here," he said. "We all know each other. . . . It makes a whole lot of difference, and it seems to contribute to work getting done."
Cotton, who started at the company last August, said her Tuesday cooking escapades grew out of a desire for the workers to have a traditional weekly family meal.
She's forever worrying over the health of her fellow employees and trying to expand their tastes.
"She had us eating seaweed once," Bradburn said, making a face. Then later, "She worries about us."
Cotton said she doesn't mind being referred to as a "mother hen." And she likes her meal to be considered one of the week's highlights.
"It's second only to payday," Bradburn said.
There are other surprises during the work week. From the shop, employees can look out and see an occasional deer drinking from the Little River.
"We saw a mink once, too," said Greg Pardee, who moved with the company from Raleigh to Floyd. "We see groundhogs and sometimes a muskrat swimming down the river. There's something going on all the time."
Something's always going on inside the shop, too, of course - someone's always sanding or sawing, sketching or soldering.
The company fills about 100 orders a year for anywhere from one to a few hundred light fixtures.
"Sometimes we're doing something for a little country church. Sometimes a shopping center needs 150 of something," Jackie Crenshaw said.
The artisans also re-create fixtures for historic buildings, sketching the designs from old photographs or newspaper clippings.
Chandeliers and fixtures range in price from $100 to $15,000 and in size from 46 inches to 16 feet in diameter.
One of the smallest fixtures - a foot-high lamp with a battered black shade - sits on a desk in one of the offices. Woody Crenshaw's father made it years ago when the business was a one-man operation.
"This one's sentimental," Woody Crenshaw said. "My father was a salesman. He'd go out and take the orders, then come back and fill them."
Like the size of the light fixtures, the business has grown. Now, most of the soliciting comes from representatives who show company catalogs to builders and architects.
One satisfied customer is Norman Garland, electronics supervisor at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., who learned about the Crenshaws through an electrical supplier in Greensboro. The Crenshaws had a good reputation from some restoration work for the State Legislative Building in Raleigh. Appalachain State ended up ordering $20,000 in fixtures for the school's bookstore, Garland said. "They did a real good job for us."
The company has made some unique fixtures for individuals - the outdoor lights for the woman with the fetish for concrete pineapples, for instance. "We had fun with those," Woody Crenshaw said.
Usually, once the company gets an order, a few workers are given responsibility for the project. They follow it from beginning to end.
"Most of us here do a little of everything," Bradburn said.
And that includes taking turns feeding Yahoo, the company cat.
Yahoo, by the way, has been at the company longer than anyone else. He was born under the roller rink before the renovations even started.
by CNB