
DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710030289

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: CREATIVE LICENSE 

SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

WOODWORKERS' FINE FURNITURE IS MADE TO LAST 2 CURRITUCK CARPENTERS HELP KEEP CRAFT ALIVE

DESPITE THE CHALLENGES that riddle the fine woodworking profession, mainly time versus cost, several carpenters in Currituck have set aside more commercial business ventures to resurrect their hand tools.

For two of them, fine woodworking has become not only an occupation but a passion and an art.

Jeff Tucker, 36, has a 2-month-old shop, The Craftsman's Passion, in Powells Point that's generating anything from a turned walnut bowl to a cherry Mission-style headboard.

Four miles east in Harbinger, Randy Ray, 41, is operating Sun Mission Furniture works creating a variety of pieces, including delicate end tables and massive made-to-order maple dining room tables.

Both men know full well that the factory furniture market could easily underprice them.

What consumers may not be aware of though is that Tucker and Ray are not only crafting chairs and wardrobes, servers and bureaus for you, but also for your heirs.

It's not unusual for fine furniture fashioned with the joinery techniques these men employ to last 100 years. Long after human joints have become arthritic, the mortise and tenon joints that hold together their handcrafted pieces still will be doing their job.

Longevity is not the only lure to owning fine furniture. Both men search through countless yards of wood before selecting just the right piece for the leg of an end table or the top of a sideboard.

Every piece of cherry, maple, walnut or oak they choose has a unique grain or pattern. Swirls and stripes, dots and dashes all add to the visual rhythm of the work that creates a lyricism that's palpable.

Tucker worked for 45 hours making one bow-back Windsor chair. He used maple, pine and red oak to achieve the affect he needed.

``This is the fun of the process,'' he said. ``Maple turns very well, pine carves very well and the red oak splits and bends very well.''

And every chair he constructs is measured to fit the individual that will use it. No more dangling legs or cramped knees.

Ray claims he ``felt connected'' when he began working with wood. He studied under Outer Banks master boat builder Omie Tillet and Bruce Johnson, who is a leading authority on the Arts and Craft movement that gave birth to Mission style furniture.

Ray incorporates the Mission style in his work. ``I like the lines; I like the simplicity of the design.''

Tucker says he became a woodworker because his father said, ``Don't touch my saw.''

``I think I made a skateboard when I was 14,'' he said. ``I bought one and it broke, and I wanted a different shape.''

He studied under world-renowned fine furniture maker, Drew Langsner from Marshall, N.C.

Tucker enjoys many of the same styles Ray does, including Shaker furniture, and both men will create what the customer wants.

But where Ray won't do chairs, Tucker can give an hour eulogy on his passion for them that resembles a high-powered sermon underlined with humility. ``For every need there's a chair I could or couldn't make,'' he said.

Both know what they do is an art, but neither considers himself an artist.

Monk-like, Tucker will tell you that his journey into woodworking has only just begun and will probably last a lifetime or possibly two, like their furniture. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE

Randy Ray crafts a cabinet in his Harbinger shop, Sun Mission

Furniture. Ray studied under Outer Banks master boat builder Omie

Tillet and Bruce Johnson, an authority on the Arts and Craft

movement.

Graphic

HOW TO SEE IT

Who: Sun Mission Furniture Works, Randy Ray

What: Handcrafted furniture made to order, antique restoration,

refinishing and repairs.

Where: Edgewater Street, Harbinger. Works are also available

through Caimen Gardens in Manteo and Native Interiors in Surfside

Plaza, Nags Head.