Gnarly Old Tree Studio brings out natural beauty of wood through live edge furniture

BY VALORIE BRECHT

TRIBUNE RECORD GLEANER

Creative passion takes on many different forms. For some it comes through in painting, textiles or metal crafting. For others like Jason Lamovec, it’s best put on display through handcrafted wood furniture, blending form and function with a rustic feel.

“Everything I do in the art world is natural. I just don’t deal with the stains… I’ve always enjoyed the natural beauty of the wood. You can’t recreate it. All I can do is show it off,” he said.

Lamovec owns Gnarly Old Tree Studio in Willard, where he creates one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture with a live edge. He uses a variety of types of wood, enhanced with other materials such as steel, epoxy and repurposed materials. His pieces have included coffee tables, sofa tables, entrance and dining room tables; dressers, benches, clocks and more.

Lamovec has been working with wood around 35 years, starting when he took shop classes in high school.

“I am not really sure where my love for wood came from, but I have been working with it in some form or other since I graduated from high school. I have always loved building things, including several houses and even a horse barn. I started my cabinet shop (Kitchen Koncepts) in 1991, which is still part of my daily life,” Lamovec said.

For his business, Lamovec builds kitchen cabinets, of course, but also bathroom cabinets, entertainment centers and other pieces to furnish the home. Although he has been a furniture builder for many years, it was only about two years ago that he started Gnarly Old Tree Studio. The

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VALORIE BRECHT/TRIBUNE RECORD GLEANER studio gave him a creative outlet and the opportunity to try different techniques he otherwise wouldn’t necessarily have a reason to try.

All of Lamovec’s pieces feature a live edge, in which the craftsperson incorporates the natural edge of wood into the design of the piece, rather than sticking to the sharp lines and square corners of traditional wooden furniture. Natural features of the wood like knots and cracks are also often part of the piece, making it that much more unique. Different cuts of wood are used for different purposes. A wood slab cut lengthwise from the tree is commonly used for sofa or console tables. A wood slice, or tree round, is a section cut horizontally from the tree. The slice will have a live edge all the way around and display the growth rings. Since it’s a smaller section, it’s typically used for side tables.

Lamovec gets his materials from various places. Sometimes a customer will have a specific piece of wood they want him to use. He has wood being stored from a white oak tree he cut down behind his house. He has gotten walnut wood from places throughout Wisconsin, such as Hixton, Eau Claire and Greenwood. He also purchases specialty pieces of wood online, such as redwood and California buckeye.

Lamovec estimates it takes on average two full days to make a piece, from start to finish. However, he doesn’t work on it all at once. It’s half-hour chunks of time here and there. Lately, Lamovec has finished a couple of waterfall edge tables, in which the surface of the table makes a 90-degree angle and continues running vertically toward the floor, with the grain of the wood flowing seamlessly from the horizontal to the vertical plane.

Looking at his work, people may wonder how Lamovec comes up with as many ideas as he does, but he says he has plenty of places from which to draw inspiration, including Pinterest and interior design magazines.

“Nobody’s ideas are really original, you know? You take it and apply a little bit of this idea and a little bit of that idea and all of a sudden you’ve come up with something. Each piece of wood’s got its own natural beauty to it, so you’ve gotta try to bring that out, instead of hide it or throw it away,” he said.

Most of Lamovec’s customers are local. He is part of the annual Spring Into the Arts tour hosted by the the Clark County Economic Development Corporation and Tourism Bureau. However, he travels to regional art shows as well. Last month, he traveled to Lanesboro in southwestern Minnesota and sold a piece of furniture and a couple of mirrors. Other locations on his art show schedule for the year are Shell Lake; Waupaca; possibly Hayward; and Stillwater, Minn.

He said everyone seems to enjoy his work, with his careful attention to detail evident in the finished product. Part of the joy of his craft is that no two pieces are alike.

“It’s a specialty item and one-of-a-kind,” he said. “There’s never two pieces exactly the same. Each slab out of the same log is going to have a little bit of different grain characteristics, a little bit different color. It’s going to be close, but they’re never going to be the same.”

For more information on Lamovec’s studio or to view his work, visit gnarlyoldtreestudio.com.

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VALORIE BRECHT/TRIBUNE RECORD GLEANER