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Furniture Maker FINDING JOY IN THE WOODS
Details, details...
Designer makes custom furniture for a specific space
Details, details make Bob Clement's fine furniture stand out
By MARILEE SPANJIAN
GRASSLAND COMMUNITY — Some people don't realize the innate gifts they have until later in life.
Although Bob Clement has the scrubbed baby face of a teenager, this 38-year old husband and father of twin four-year-old girls found his talent after graduating with a business degree, struggling as a musician ("you could call my style folksy") and establishing his career in lighting for the film industry.
Five years ago, this Jackson, MS native found that he has the uncanny ability to take it piece of wood and turn it into a fine piece of furniture.
Clement uses a lathe to carve details on this spindle. Early American designs inspire his work.
What's the secret to his craftsmanship? Clement uses mostly air-dried wood because it keeps its natural color and makes it less brittle (instead of kiln dried that can rush the drying process). He doesn't build tables, hutches and benches by the clock. Instead, Clement builds them so they last.
"I don't believe time is money. I just enjoy making things for peopie," he said.
He also doesn't price his furniture so high that no one can afford it. "I'd rather make something for someone than price myself out of work," he added. For example, it small table costs "a couple of hundred dollars" Oak or pine farm tables run $650, and tables with mined legs and hand-cut dove-tailed drawers run $850.
In the garage of his Cottonwood home, Clement maneuvers around a lathe, drill press, planers, table saws, radial arm saws and miter saws, mortising jig router table, jointer, boxes of chisels, jars of shellac and plastic jars of wood biscuits to create classic furniture inspired by Early American designs.
His Uncle Rod, a fine furniture maker in Mississippi, taught him about finishing, dovetailing and carving cabriole legs. And what he didn't learn from Uncle Rod, he picked up by reading, observing or watching television.
With a project always in the works, Clement has made tables out of solid cherry — including the built-in drawer. For a Queen Anne drop leaf, he used mahogany. One-hundred-year old poplar barn wood was perfect for it table with turned legs. An old crate of Spanish cedar was transformed into a small hall table. Spalted (patterned) maple was perfect for doors on a hanging cabinet, and cherry and walnut became footstools.
About the only thing that Clement doesn't like to build is kitchen cabinetry.
Clement planes a tabletop in the garage of his Cottonwood home. He prefers to use air-dried wood because it keeps its natural color and is less brittle. This walnut piece had air-dried for 20 years in a barn.
"I like making furniture because within a short time, I can be satisfied," he explained. "But, I hate buying plywood for any project. I will if I have to for a drawer bottom every now and then."
Clement admits when he gets a hobby, "it doesn't stay a hobby for very long."
His wife Terri agrees, adding, "He has so many hobbies. He's so blessed. It's amazing to me that he can bring home an old piece of wood and turn it into a piece of furniture."
But his other hobbies are just as interesting. For example, Clement can play a wood saw. As he bends the blade front and back, listening for the exact tone, he states almost matter-of-factly as though he read it in a textbook, "The trick is you've got to thump it."
To contact Clement, call 591-3928, or e-mail him at bobclement@comcast.net.
