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PAGE 18 · VISITING THE SMOKIES GUIDE, April, 2006
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Wandering Woodworker is... | |
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Doug Bittinger was born in Texas, but has lived in more locations than he can count. The son of a jet engine mechanics block instructor, his family moved just about every year.
"It was rough on me socially" says Bittinger, "because I knew I would be leaving soon, so there was no point in making friends and forming attachments that I would just have to leave behind. But it did expose me to a |
Doug Bittinger |
But reality soon intervened and I was forced to pursue another career. But I kept making things for my home, friends and relatives. It got to where so many people were telling me that I ought to be a professional that I started to consider it."
Doug 'hung out his shingle' with a part time woodworking business in his garage which did well and grew rapidly. But this first attempt succumbed to one of those 'life experiences' that sometimes befall us.
"Starting all over was really |
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work never caught on locally. But Doug had built a web site to promote his work while in St Louis. By the time they moved to the Great Smoky Mountains, it was well established. He changed it's name to Smoky Mountain Woodworks and it has been the source of 95% of their woodworking business.
"We started out with little things; decorative items, cheese boards, wood & crystal goblets - oh, and bottle stoppers! But once I posted a few furniture pieces on the web site - just as examples of our work - that end of things really took off. Now I don't have time to make the little things because we have a back log of furniture orders that usually runs around 40 weeks, and |
much wider cross-section of the world than most people get to see. But of all the places I've lived, this is definitely the best. I have no plans to leave."
Doug's wife, Marie was born and raised in St Louis Missouri. She's never lived anywhere else before moving to Tennessee. "When we started talking about moving out here, she was really concerned about moving away from everything she knew. St. Louis was 'home'. Just the opposite of me. But after we'd been here a few months, Marie told me that wild horses couldn't drag her back to the city. It's so beautiful and serene here, it's like being on vacation -- every day!" |
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hard, I didn't have the money to replace all the tools, and I was living in an apartment building with no place to work anyway. I was in St. Louis at that time, and a Rockler Woodworking store was just about to open and was looking for experienced craftsmen to teach classes and assist their customers with woodworking projects. If I couldn't build my own stuff, helping people build theirs seemed like a good idea."
"I met Marie, we dated for about a year and were married. When we were coming back from a trip, we stopped in one of those art & craft galleries on the Blue Ridge Parkway where Marie saw some lovely turned |
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has been over a year long. Most of what we produce is custom designed furniture built of solid hardwoods. No plywood or particle board. If someone can't find just the right piece of furniture, I'll design and build it for them."
Doug has several pieces of his furniture on display in the Treasures Of Appalachia gallery in Cosby, or you can visit his web site at www.SmokyMountainWoodworks.com. "We don't have a show room of our own because as fast as I finish a piece of furniture, we crate it up and put it on a truck. There is nothing much to put in a showroom."
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Doug started woodworking when he was in grade school. "I took every shop class the schools offered. When I ran out of woodshop classes, I took metal shop, drafting and architectural drawing. Oddly enough, though I have taken many college level courses none of them were in woodworking. But I did continue studying through reading books and magazines."
 Woodworking wasn't a serious pursuit for Doug until he was out on his own and found a need to furnish a home on a shoe-string budget, then his skills came in very handy. But even then, woodworking was mostly a hobby, for many years.
"For a time, I entertained the notion of sailing around the world, earning enough to keep me going by doing carpentry work in the various ports I visited. |
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bottle stoppers. She was fascinated by them, and commented that she thought they would sell well to the vineyards around Missouri. I told her that they were a cinch to make, and I could make them if I had a lathe. So she bought me a lathe and we made bottle stoppers."
The bottle stoppers did indeed sell well. designed a two tone rack made of walnut and maple to display the stoppers in and the wineries |
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"We got involved with Treasures Of Appalachia because it is so hard to find local outlets that aren't filled with imported… um… stuff. Everything there is hand made and locally produced. I really like that. We've sold a fair number of our rocking chairs through the gallery, and bottle stopper racks. The stoppers themselves seem to have cooled off, but especially around Christmas time, the racks sell so fast I can't keep up with them!"
Treasures of Appalachia is a quality Art & Fine Craft Gallery that offers the works of nearly 50 Cocke County artisans. Everything in the store is locally made and hand crafted. They also host 3 Art & Craft Gatherings throughout the year that are open to all artists, crafters, performers and food vendors. You may reach the gallery at (423) 487-3111 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM every |
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gobbled them up. With the money they made, Doug and Marie bought more tools and made more things. Doug was back in business - but this time with a partner.
"We converted our garage into a small workshop and worked at it part time until we moved here, then we did so with the intent of going full time with the woodworking and selling our items to the local shops for tourists to buy."
But it didn't work out that way. For a variety of reasons, their |
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day except Sunday. Or you may contact Len and Varena Landrum at (423) 487-5448 or log onto www.TreasuresOfAppalachia.com. |
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