Emerging Artisan Interview

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, as always thank you for your continued support over the years. Last Thursday I was blessed to conduct an interview with Tom from the international magazine Emerging Artisans and the transcript is below. As always thank you for your continued support and encouragement, I hope all of you have an amazing day. I have attached the transcripts of the actual interview below.

Hi Richard, how are you?

I am good and it's nice to meet you, Tom.

Thanks, and it is our pleasure to have you as this month's featured artist. Can you tell us a little about yourself both personally and professionally?
Sure, I am currently 35 years old, in the army, and have two amazing fur-holes who are my spoiled "supervisors". I am originally from Alaska and my business essentially emerged out of necessity as in the very beginning I was a poor boy living in a small town and if you needed something then more often than not you had to make it which looking back was definitely working for my advantage as it was the genesis of my creativity. For most of my time as a business it was on the side, but I worked professionally full time for a few years until Covid which is why I went back to the army after getting out for college and to be self-employed making custom furniture and decore.

How did you like being self-employed full time?

I loved most of it but I am done doing custom work and am only doing works of my choosing these days.

Any reason?

Yes, while I love bringing people's dreams to reality the unfortunate truth behind it is that most people really lack imagination, so I often found myself essentially making the same five pieces over and over. For example, there are some fashion trends so to speak and you wind up building the same farmhouse table ten times but just different colors or measurements and it really began to feel like work and I found myself losing my passion that originally led me to be interested in creating unique functional pieces of art.

So what genre would you say that you are in? What is your favorite medium to work with?

It's funny that you would ask that as in all honesty I don't think I have a set genre. I do like farmhouse and modern industrial but by far my favorite thing is to make unique pieces, for example, this one client of mine had a small apartment but with a big dog and was a college student so we collaborated and I designed an L shaped desk that had a kennel on the left side and wrap around shelves on the top. I am trying to get more into sculptural resin work so you have a truly three-dimensional aspect to the pieces rather than just what everyone else does. I have the most experience in woodworking but I am always expanding and increasing so there is often some new offering.

Why are you no longer doing custom furniture?

For a few reasons honestly, we are still a very small business and I do 90% of the work and occasionally hire specialists to do certain functions like with our knife lines we have a local blacksmith that forges the Damascus steel and I do the rest of the work on the knives and if you look around and compare similar items we are generally cheaper than a truly similar product in part due to having less overhead expenses which we think is a plus to our customers. But one of the downsides to being a home-based business is a lack of room to store completed pieces so our original business plan really revolved around raw products being readily available and having customers come to pick up items on time. For a while, I had a contract that in place which helped but there were still times when we would have customers take time picking up items or simply not reply to messages, I mean they would read them but not reply which would get really annoying as we had to free up room to complete pieces for other customers which created a backlog. So I prefer to simply build amazing pieces and if they sell then they sell and while that also has its own pros and cons it is also much more enjoyable in the building process as you can make it "perfect" and it's not nearly as repetitive.

Why do you make this type of art?

I find it to be both fun and challenging, also I believe that to an extent some big box stores and mass manufacturing businesses are deceptive in their labeling and business practices so it takes a certain amount of educating people to understand the difference between a quality product and a cheap product that is basically "sawdust between two stickers".

"Sawdust between two stickers"?

Yes, larger suppliers in an attempt to bring the prices down have to a large degree stopped building quality products and started using things like MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) which is sawdust that has been glued together and has a "sticker" or a thin layer that of a solid material applied to the outside. Also, many modern pieces use veneer instead of solid wood which is cheaper and it doesn't last as long but instead is prone to chipping and flaking off. Similar methods have been used in the leather industry which is part of why we also make belts, purses, and such.

What does your work represent and what inspires you?

I don't know if I would say that our work really has any symbolic value or such as my main goal is to simply make unique pieces that are absolutely awesome to look at and use. Inspiration wise it really varies as we have done some Star Wars furniture that we were obviously inspired by Star Wars but some of my work is less obvious like this one "river table" that I did and it didn't have a river in it at all but instead, it was a highway like a scene with classic cars and a to-scale gas station which in a way was inspired by model railroading. I think to a very degree I just enjoy making unique pieces and hope to create a large following of people who enjoy them.

Who are your biggest influences and how have they helped develop your career?

I draw most of my influence from everyday life like when I was stationed in Europe, I explored a castle and climbed on the old guard towers and got an amazing view of what looked like a gothic cathedral was impressed with how ornate it was and wanted to use similar lines and shadows in a paint scheme on a dresser that I made for one lady. There have been a few artists that I have drawn inspiration from though, for example, the Netflix show "Car Masters: From Rust To Richs" or History Channel's "Kounts Customs" have both impressed me on how they are able to radically change somethings to such a degree that it looks like something else and it has inspired me to learn to weld and want to build my own car from scratch. I admit that building my car from scratch is a ways off but I am getting ready to create a custom body on a riding lawn mower or perhaps "start" with building a custom motorcycle as there is much less mechanical work and metal shaping required largely due to it being a smaller vehicle yet the methods will directly transfer over. For furniture, I think my biggest influences will be from the Youtube stars John Malecki and Nick Zemmetti as they both build awesome pieces aren't afraid to try new ideas.

How have you developed your career? How do you seek out opportunities?

Well, when we first started it was like my ex-girlfriend used to say "basic bitch work" which quickly grew old so I think I might have ADHD as I enjoy learning new things and expanding my skillsets so if it is something new I am likely to try it. Take leatherworking and jewelry making for example... Several years ago I was hired to make a solid mahogany desk but the client wanted a rustic leather with lots of character inlaid under a glass top so I built him the desk and since I am not one to waste materials I also made some leather earrings out of it and my first wallet which led to a new "branch" of my business. In short, I'd say that the way I developed my business the most is from a pet peeve of my mine, I always fail to see why some artists limit themselves to being a "one-trick pony", I mean I understand the desire to specialize in a certain aspect of it and I respect it I mean after all you don't want me to try and do brain surgery...

How do you price your work?

Pricing is an interesting question, I large part is parts, materials, and labor but I also look at the market and research similar pieces but ignore the cheap copies of things for the pieces of junk that they are and focus solely on quality pieces. I also shop around to try and find the best rates on shipping that include insurance because unfortunately things sometimes happen while en route to the final destination.

What’s integral to the work of an artist? What role does the artist have in society?
It really depends on the medium but at large it is attention to detail, being able to see size and shapes while being able to mentally fill in the blanks. For example, we had one client that asked us to build him a day bed that was a copy of a day bed that we made for another client and we made it the exact same dimensions but the client complained that the day bed looked like a day bed which was annoying but also kind of funny because it was the exact same dimensions and all of the other clients loved their versions of the same day bed. So this largely goes back to education as people often look at a picture without actually seeing the picture or they don't grasp angles like if you look at a bed from one angle it looks long but narrow but if you look at it from another angle it looks short and wide....

How do you educate as an artist?

Mostly through conversations and discussions with people and answering questions. I also try to post on my blog regularly and if you don't mind I'd like to put a copy of this interview's transcripts there too.

Sure, I don't mind... Out of all of the materials that you work with what are your favorites to work with and what seems to be the most popular?

Can I say all of them? If I had to choose one I'd have to say woodworking largely because that's what I have the most experience with and it is foundational to the products that I make for example even the tables with metal bases sometimes have wooden tops. You can also recycle wood and keep history alive by either refinishing them or creating new pieces with them, for example, I had this one client who wanted me to take the top of her deceased father's desk and make it into a dining room table.

What jobs have you done besides being an artist?

For the most part, my jobs have largely been in the public safety sector like military and law enforcement however I have also worked in construction, retail, and public relations. I learned a lot in all of them especially retail as I got a more technical education in how products and tools are made and sort of a behind-the-scenes look at how tools are pitched.

So why have you stayed in the art field and what is your artistic outlook?

That's a tough one but I'd have to say that it is to keep old traditions alive while integrating modern technology and approaches. I strongly believe that you are better off getting a quality product from the beginning instead of having to buy a new table every time that you move. Also, I just like things that look good which is part of why I integrate different mediums like a flat-screen monitor inside of a wood table so that people can play their game of choice or the integration of Raspberry Pi coding so that people can have a real-life smart mirror that features voice recognition and can even be connected to your smartphone so you can ask the mirror on the wall what the weather is outside.

Is artisan life lonely? How do you counteract it?

To an extent yes but that's why I have my fur-holes (Jack E Chan and Jilly Saurus), they are both Great Danes and awesome pups and it really is hard to have a bad day when they give you a goofy look or you look up and your 180-pound dog is dragging off an eight-foot board but then again that also gets kind of annoying lol but for the most part I just love having my big goofy "supervisors" chilling around the house while I work. I am the kind of guy that has a few good friends and I am very loyal so working from home and having pieces for sale at consignment stores really is almost an ideal situation for me.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? Professionally, what’s your goal?

Wow, that's a hard one! I have had numerous people help me ranging from product suppliers providing technical advice to fellow artists and builders asking for advice and input about how to do things and while I am not a tutorial or instructional based business I often find myself helping other people figure out how to do things which in itself brings a certain degree of satisfaction. Goals wise I'd say open up an actual storefront and hire a few knowledgeable salespeople who can do the selling while I do the building. I want to continue supporting animal shelters and similar non-profits. I also still want to build my own version of GM's Rally Fighter type car but more in my style and on a personal level one of these days I want to settle down and start a family so I am getting out of the army as soon as this contract is over and now I just need to figure out where to move to.

Lol, do you have any places in mind?

I am currently based out of Kansas but I'd like to settle down someplace a little warmer like Texas, Arizona, Florida, or such although really I am pretty open.

Well thank you for your time and it has been a pleasure interviewing you.

Thanks, likewise. I hope that you have a great day.