ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701270084
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
As Dale Davis explains, there isn't much call for aerospace engineers in Roanoke.
There is, on the other hand, a market for handcrafted wooden furniture and for a place to sell such crafts.
"I'm not a businessman," said Davis, a former NASA engineer, who with his business partner, Vicki Wood, owns and operates the two Crafters Wall-to-Wall malls in the Roanoke Valley.
"But this isn't a high-profit venture."
It is, instead, their way of turning a hobby - making rustic furniture - into a full-time job.
Davis, who graduated from Virginia Tech with an engineering degree, designed airplanes at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton. But after eight years, he decided he'd had enough of the high-tech, high-stress life.
He wanted more time for the woodworking that had been a hobby and stress-reliever for years. He had sold some of his pieces at craft shows, but the craft never grew beyond an avocation.
"I either had time to build it or sell it," he said. "I couldn't do both."
He figured plenty of other craftspeople were facing the same dilemma. And so he moved back to Southwest Virginia where, with the help of nine investors, he and Wood opened their first Crafters Wall-to-Wall in an old Salem hardware store in July 1995. The next March, they opened a second location, in Market Square East on U.S. 460 in Roanoke. They're also partners in HeartWood Creations, the Salem woodworking shop where they spend most of their time.
They've since discovered that Southwest Virginia is a tough market for craft malls. Their biggest task, harder even than buffing the forklift scuff marks from the former hardware store's floor, has been recruiting a steady supply of artisans.
Soon after they opened the Salem mall, the store was 92 percent occupied. But some craftmakers dropped out after a month or so of not selling enough to pay the rent, and others left because they got so caught up in selling that they burned out. Still others moved from the area. The Roanoke store is filling up slowly, but still less than half the stalls at each location are rented.
"For every five crafters you get, you lose three or four to attrition," Davis said.
Turnover isn't unique to Crafters Wall-to-Wall; it happens at all craft malls. It was, in fact, one reason Blue Ridge Crafters Emporium closed earlier this month after three years on the Roanoke City Market, former owner Barry Booher said.
But in more established markets, such as the Tidewater area, there are always plenty of other craftspeople to take over the empty booths, Davis said. Those malls, which keep waiting lists of crafters, can afford to pick and choose tenants. A larger, transient population also means a constant supply of fresh customers, he said.
Until business picks up, Davis and Wood rent to just about anyone who can pay the monthly fee; they then rely on the market to weed out unsuccessful tenants.
But he expects more stability will come with time. Big craft malls - his are 9,000 square feet each - just haven't been in business here long enough to have earned solid reputations, he said.
Some of the crafters who are sticking it out have full-time jobs and rely on craft sales for a little extra money. Many, like Christine and Willard Falls of Salem, are retired. They keep up their crafts because they don't want to become couch potatoes, Christine Falls said.
They do a "good business" selling wooden doll furniture, quilt stands and painted wooden pieces, she said. They both had booths at Blue Ridge Crafters Emporium. Now they share a booth at the Salem mall.
Other crafters don't seem to care whether they make any money or not, Wood said. They so enjoy the camaraderie of the mall, and appreciate having an outlet for their crafts, they're happy to subsidize their hobby if it doesn't pay for booth rent.
That is, in a way, how Davis and Wood feel about their business. While they'd like to turn the malls into profitable stores, they opened Crafters Wall-to-Wall to give themselves a place to sell their furniture. The rent and commissions paid by the crafters barely cover the costs of running the malls, Davis said. But if he had wanted to make big money, he said, he would have stayed at Langley.
"I just want to build furniture," he said. "That's all I want to do."
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Vicki Wood and Dale Davis ownby CNBCrafters Wall-to-Wall in Salem, 2. where vendor Donna Scott's
decoupage flower pots (below) are for
sale.