
DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711140155

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  146 lines

MUSICAL CRAFTSMAN CHESAPEAKE WOODWORKER'S DULCIMER CREATIONS LOOK GOOD AND SOUND EVEN BETTER.

RICHARD PELLETIER stood in front of his Las Gaviotas home as his wife and mother were about to go off on a shopping trip.

``Can I get you anything, dear?'' his wife Sue asked.

``Sure, get me a tool, any kind of a tool,'' Pelletier shot back.

Pelletier wasn't joking.

``If there's a tool out there, he'll get it,'' Sue Pelletier said.

One glance into his two-car-garage-turned-workshop confirms the truth.

There are tools everywhere, including a half-dozen special circular saws, clamps, nails, adhesives, oils and a 6-foot tall rack holding long boards of cherry, sycamore and walnut wood.

Pelletier is an artist who uses wood as his medium. His specialities are exquisite shaker boxes and handmade dulcimers, those Appalachian stringed instruments. His creations sound as good as they look.

Pelletier, who retired from Bell Atlantic as a supervisor about six years ago, conducts a side business that he said keeps him busy and happy. His business card says it all: Mostly Shaker: Handcrafted Items by Richard Pelletier (boxes/baskets, mountain dulcimers).

He said he's only been making dulcimers for about a year after learning how from Bertron W. Barry Jr., a Grassfield resident who has been making and perfecting the four-stringed instruments for 20 years.

``We got together at one of those craft shows and traded secrets,'' Barry said.

``We met at a Great Bridge rec center craft show in October '96,'' Pelletier added. ``I had my baskets on display and he had his dulcimers. We got to talking and thought we'd share our knowledge.

``We still visit with each other. I'll go over to his place; we'll sit in his workshop and talk about what we're making and who's making what. We'll also sit around and play and sing.''

Combining his own woodworking skills with techniques he learned from Barry, Pelletier creates dulcimers from scratch. No kits, ready-made materials or short-cuts are ever used.

He said he spends about 20 hours on each instrument. There are always several in various stages of development: one is clamped down with about a half-dozen wooden grips; another needs several coats of special oil; two more are about to have their frames cut out of western red cedar.

``The two perfect woods for the sound board are sitka spruce and the red cedar,'' he said. ``Both resonate well and give off a nice mellow sound.''

He makes fret boards from scratch, drills in four heart-shaped sound holes in the sound box, attaches banjo tuners on the peg-head for the strings and then gives each dulcimer a supreme rub-down.

``After it's all finished, I'll rub it down with tung oil, which is an oil that's been used by furniture makers for centuries,'' he said. ``I'll rub it down over and over again with 1200-grit sand paper. I usually give it four to six coats of the oil. I'll rub it down until it feels smooth. I do it by hand and know it's finished simply by touch or feel. I never spray. It may be easier, but the end result just doesn't have that feel.''

And what delights Pelletier is that each completed dulcimer has a subtle difference in tone.

``Every one I make is unique in look and sound,'' he said.

Even though Pelletier has only been at it for about a year, the master approves of the neophyte's skill.

``He's an excellent craftsman,'' Barry said. ``He pays such attention to the fine details. And if you pay attention to the little details, the big things come out all right. He started off making dulcimers with a high level of craftmanship.''

Pelletier said word-of-mouth has been good advertising for his dulcimers.

``People hear about my dulcimers or see them at the few shows I do a year,'' he said. ``They inquire about them, I give them my business card and then they contact me later. I usually sell them for about $285 to $325.''

His skill was recently on display at the rain-soaked debut of the Green Sea Festival at Northwest River Park. Festival organizer Cindy Butler said Pelletier's display tent, in spite of the wet weather, was always crowded with browsers and onlookers.

``There was a constant flow of people into his tent. And every once in a while you could hear this nice mellow music,'' Butler said. ``He did a lot of explaining about the music and history of dulcimers as it related to the culture of the southern watershed area.''

It wasn't until after Pelletier moved to this southern watershed from San Diego in 1958 that he began working with wood.

``I had a desk job and received very little satisfaction from it,'' said Pelletier, who has lived in Chesapeake since 1964 and began woodworking the same year. ``I began to make something out of nothing. At first it was very crude and I used pine, then I graduated to harder woods. And through it all I always challenged myself to improve.''

After seeing an article in Fine Woodworking Magazine about the simple utilitarian art of the celibate Shaker sect, Pelletier began to make Shaker boxes - small, wooden, oval-shaped containers.

He's been making the boxes for about seven years.

``They (the Shakers, so named because they shook with emotion during their church services) were noted for their simplicity of design and creating things that were functional and lasted forever,'' he said.

He makes individual boxes or a sets of six in increasing degrees of size so they all fit into each other like those Russian nesting dolls. He also makes Shaker Christmas tree ornaments, Shaker tables and quilt racks.

A member of the Tidewater Wood Workers and the tough-to-join Albemarle Craftsman's Guild, Pelltier is also a credible gunsmith, expert target shooter and gourmet cook who makes his own pastas and sauces.

But currently he's most proud of the wooden creations that look good and sound even better. And he's also proud of the fact he can play one of his creations.

``Before, I could only play static on the radio,'' he said. ``I never thought I'd ever be able to play any kind of instrument, but the dulcimer is supposed to be the easiest fretted instrument to play and it is fun. I now have a repertoire of about 18-20 songs.

``It also gives me a good feeling to make one of these. I am a craftsman and to take that skill and be able to express myself with wood and the music it can create makes it very satisfying. Very satisfying, indeed.'' MEMO: For more information about Richard Pelletier's dulcimers and

Shaker boxes, contact him at 436-0005. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by RICHARD L.

DUNSTON

Richard Pelletier, retired from Bell Atlantic as a supervistor,

holds the frame of a dulcimer, cut out of western red cedar.

Pelletier makes fret boards from scratch, drills in four

heart-shaped sound holes in the sound box and attaches banjo tuners

on the peg-head.

In Richard Pelletier's two-car-garage-turned-workshop, there are

tools everywhere, including a half-dozen special circular saws,

clamps, nails, adhesives, oils and a 6-foot tall rack holding long

boards of wood.

Susan Pelletier puts small brass tacks in a shaker box created by