Our Non-Profit Apprentice Programs Are Key
We Do Not Count Our Success In Monetary Value
We count our success in our people, and their success, and their dedication to our customers.
Hand Crafting American Family Heirloom Furnishings, And Historic Fine Art Restorations For Humanities Cultural Advancement Since 1913
Helping others, help us, help them, has always been our first goal, before our profit margins. Carrying our apprentice program is a key to our success and continuation. This means operating as a non-profit in most cases, until we can hire and properly train these newly hired hands, with hands-on experience. Our apprentices train with one of our most experienced masters, side by side. Furthermore, our apprentices are paid appropriate wages from day one. This means that because, in addition to the salary of the new trainee, and also slowing the production speed of one of our teaching masters, who is at top pay scale, we are often operating at a loss, or just barely breaking even if we are lucky, every time we train a new apprentice. Furthermore, it takes time until the apprentice is skilled enough to produce a high standard product that can be sold to an end user customer, and will meet our world class fine art standards. However, this old fashion system has been used by our family for over 100 years, and this was the way the fine arts/craftsmen were taught for thousands of years.
The apprentice program allows us to hire a person some times that has no skills except the desire to become a master craftsman. Sometimes these folks are persons that could not get a job anywhere, or are folks that most employers would never hire, for a variety of reasons. We focus on desire, work ethic, and family background to decide who to invest in. Currently, our youngest apprentice is 18-years-old, with a limited formal education.
Over the years, we have had great success with this lost arts program that can take many years to produce a master. To this day, we have many of these kind of employees still working in our shop. Some , with their family members working alongside. Our longest term employee presently working is 35-years on the bench, and still looking forward to continuing on. This is one of the key ingredients that has allowed us to be the oldest and the best in this industry of custom historic manufacturing to custom restorations to world class fine art and museum standards.
Today, we have a hand picked, loyal, friendly, and helpful management crew and work force, composed of persons with many years of hands-on experience, many that have been at their benches and stations for many years. This includes many persons that have completed our apprentice program. Master carvers, blacksmiths, millwrights, finishers, painters, furniture makers, door makers and much more. Building in the same hand and materials as our ancestors from old world, in centuries gone by. Building heirlooms that are made to last forever. This also translates to our 101-point, World Class Fine Art, Museum Quality Standard Restorations, thus bringing artifacts and road art from Americas Industrial Revolution back to life.