A success story of a willow art weaver

It's amazing what a skilled pair of hands can create in just a few hours, such as the hands of Don De St Jeor and the beautiful willow art furniture he builds. Even more amazing is that De St Jeor can teach an inexperienced student to do the same in just a few hours more.

De St Jeor, of Lindon, has been building willow furniture as a hobby, and for a little extra income, for about 16 of the 40 years he's worked as a carpenter. Even now, as his home workshop undergoes renovations, he keeps himself busy working on willow projects whenever and wherever he can.

On some clear floor space at his place of work, Magleby Companies in Lindon, De St Jeor lays out a sheet of cardboard to work on. With limited tools and a pile of sandbar willow, he adds a beautifully curved back and arm rests to a simple frame of black willow.

Long, thin limbs bend easily in his hands as he shapes them into his design, each a near-perfect fit requiring only a little trimming in length and smoothing some sharp points. Then with a few taps of a hammer the spiral galvanized nails De St Jeor uses hold the wood securely in place.

Each piece he has made is unique, going back to his first high-back chair built at a workshop hosted by fellow carpenter John Phillips, who De St Jeor sponsored to come to Utah and teach.

After perfecting his own technique and building everything from a California king bed frame to small doll furniture for his granddaughters, De St Jeor began hosting his own workshops. Up to twice a month he works with students, even traveling around the Intermountain West to do so.

Providing all the willow and basic tools needed -- bow saw, hammer and surform -- willow weaver De St Jeor works with his students on their first piece of willow furniture.

"Most of my clients have never built furniture in their lives, and in six hours time they've built a chair," De St Jeor said.

One such student was Ron Echols, a teacher now living in Hagerman, Idaho, who worked with De St Jeor to build a black willow love seat.

Hagerman soon sold that seat to a craft shop and since then has gone on to some success building willow furniture and selling it at craft shows.

"I really enjoy it because you're working with your hands while creating and designing things in your head," Echols said.

Once a basic frame is built for a table or chair, the creativity begins -- the artist wrapping the flexible willow limbs to fit the design.

"The best part of building this furniture is that there's no right or wrong," De St Jeor said.

While the technique seems simple, the challenge is creating something attractive to the eye while comfortable to sit in -- functional art.

"If it's not something people will sit in, it's just firewood," said De St Jeor, who even seated as large a man as Karl Malone in one of his custom chairs.

While De St Jeor has sold plenty of handmade willow furniture, he prefers teaching others in workshops how to build the furniture tow slaving away to build massive quantities of it to sell.

"That way it keeps it fresh and fun and it doesn't become work," he said.

What makes this type of furniture even more appealing is that the materials De St Jeor needs are free. Sometimes he even gets paid to cut it.

Getting permission from private landowners, De St Jeor cuts from a number of trees throughout the valley as well as patches of sandbar willow along ditch and river banks. The renewable crop then grows back within a year when he'll return, if needed, for more.

"Farmers hate it, they're more than happy to let me come cut it," he said.

And while some might consider it a pest, overgrowing ditch banks and grazing areas, the wood is valuable to those like De St Jeor who build with it.

Carefully stepping his way through a sandbar willow patch on a ditch bank, hoping not to encounter any skunks or step into the cold water, De St Jeor seeks out long, straight shoots of willow to cut, stack and carry back to his workshop floor.

There he proceeds to bend and shape them into rounded, sweeping arm rests on a small chair for his visiting granddaughter, Ellery Sorenson.

After close inspection the 2-year-old gives her grandfather a shy nod of approval and places an order for matching chairs for her sisters and a table.

Read more infornation for basket weaver on Wickerchina.com.