Wood Stock | Georgetown

Wood Stock | Georgetown

By Suzanne Haberman Thursday, 03 December 2009

GEORGETOWN — Steve St. James opened Wood Stock in Liberty Hill three years ago intending to sell only his handmade woodcrafts. But shortly after opening, local woodworkers began asking him to sell their work, too.

“I had people on a waiting list within a month and a half. I did not have room for very much,” St. James said, “so I started taking my things out to make room for other people’s things.”

St. James now consigns the woodwork of approximately 80 artists from all over Texas in addition to his own. Their work—from vases and bowls to tables and other unique objects—fills the converted house St. James renovated into a shop when he relocated Wood Stock to Georgetown in 2008.

“I was hoping the first business would eventually grow into a bigger place,” St. James said. “If I had the resources, I could pack a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse in about two weeks. There are that many local woodworkers.”

Most of the woodworkers are not professional carpenters, but retirees who are preserving the craft and their minds with the activity, he said.

“They build them at their own shops or at home, and we showcase their things here. It’s really more like a museum of all this local talent,” St. James said.

Before opening his own business, St. James spent 12 years building custom wood floors, but hard labor took a toll on his knees and back. When he retired from the industry, his wife, Diane, encouraged him to open a shop to display and sell the pieces of woodburning art he had been creating since he was a teenager.

“I turned my tools into woodworking tools as opposed to flooring tools,” he said.

Despite working with wood since he was 14 years old, St. James said he learns something new almost every day from the tight-knit community of woodworkers who come into his store and talk shop.

“Just about the time you think you’ve seen it all in wood, here comes an 85-year-old man who has been doing his craft for 70 years,” St. James said. “It’s really expanded into a lot more knowledge for me.”

St. James enlists the craftsmen’s skills to make custom-designed pieces from wood that has special meaning to his customers.

Customers can bring in various pieces of wood for custom pieces. St. James then contacts the woodworkers with the appropriate expertise for the project to determine who can quote the best price and come up with the best idea. At times, people have even left wooden logs in the shop so the artists can drop by and make suggestions.

“I don’t care what you want in wood,” St. James said. “You can get it here.”