(cheerful music) (saw swishes) - Welcome to the "Volunteer Woodworker."

I'm your host, Charles Brock.

Come with me as we drive the back roads, bringing you the story of America's finest woodworkers.

(cheerful music) (door thuds) (cheerful music continues) We're on our way to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to meet Jerry Spady.

Jerry is like no other woodworker I know.

Thinking outside the box is ordinary for him.

He spends most of his time exploring new boundaries.

His woodworking projects come from very special visions.

Let's meet Jerry Spady.

(cheerful music) (saw swishes) - [Announcer] "Volunteer Woodworker" is funded in part by...

Since 1970, Whiteside Machine Company has been producing industrial-grade router bits in Claremont, North Carolina.

Whiteside makes carbide bits for edge forming, grooving, and CNC application.

Learn more at whitesiderouterbits.com.

Real Milk Paint Company makes VOC-free, non-toxic milk paint, available in 56 colors.

Milk Paint creates a matte wood finish that can be distressed for an antique look.

(gentle music) Good Wood Nashville designs custom furniture and is a supplier of vintage hardwoods.

Keri Price with Keller Williams Realty has been assisting Middle Tennessee home buyers and sellers since 2013.

Mayfield Hardwood Lumber, supplying Appalachian hardwoods worldwide.

Anna's Creative Lens.

(gentle music) - Jerry Spady.

- Charles Brock.

- Yeah.

So nice to be here.

I tell you what, Jerry, this is an amazing place to start because you can't tell the story of Jerry Spady without looking into the mind of Jerry Spady.

This is art that is beautiful, but it needs an explanation that only you can give.

What's this?

Tell us the story.

- Well, there is a story behind this.

I live with a Norwegian woman, and she's introduced me to concepts that are typical of Norwegian.

And one of them is the idea of Valhalla, which is the Viking heaven.

And I thought I was running out of room to put my pieces, and I wanted to build testimonials to different woodworking friends and other people in my life that had died.

And so I thought, well, I'll put everything up in the ceiling, and it'll be my private Valhalla.

So there's a Viking ship up there that has several people, their cremains in it.

And the trick in my life was trying to figure out how in the world would the Vikings ever find Valhalla in the first place, to exploit it.

And so my imagination went a little wild and I thought, well, I'll try to solve that problem through a woodworking piece.

So I built this contraption, and I was envisioning the Vikings of old, exploring their environments way up north.

And they were following a small river that emptied into a fairly small lake.

And the difference in this lake was that it erupted like Old Faithful.

And so, every once in a while, all the water would go skyward.

And rather than Old Faithful, where the water falls back down to the ground, in this case, the water disappeared up in the sky.

Well, of course, Vikings being curious, you know, and explorers, they wanted to find out what was going on with this water.

So they built this giant launching thing, and they could winch a Viking ship up here and launch it into the geyser just as it was erupting, and it would carry the boat up into the sky.

- Wow.

- Then it just disappeared.

And that's how the Vikings, in my head, discovered Valhalla.

- Well, that's an amazing piece.

And with the story, it represents it extremely well.

I don't think anybody else could think of something like that and put this together.

(chuckles) It's a great way to start the story of Jerry Spady.

We're going to move to a different location, and we're gonna tell that story to the viewers right now.

- All right.

(saw swishes) (cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (saw swishes) - Jerry, I just loved the concept and the piece, "Valhalla," but you didn't start out with that.

That wasn't your first piece.

Tell me about young Jerry Spady, and how did you start this journey toward what you have today, like this beautiful retreat that you have here, where nothing's rectilinear?

(chuckles) How did you get there?

- Well, that's an interesting question, and in part, it has to do with my upbringing.

I was the son of a baker, so I spent a lot of time in a bakery when I was growing up.

And this is out on the West Coast in Washington state.

And I was attracted, always attracted, from day one, to science.

And, ultimately, I moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to study in a small graduate school at the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

And I was trained very, very well.

I mean, that's a hell of a place to learn how to do basic research.

So that was always my bent.

It was always something that I loved to do, and I never expected to apply it to woodworking.

But eventually, I was with a small company and in the lab, doing my thing, and following my nose.

And we had to shut the lab down for financial reasons.

This is an ongoing company even today, but at that time we were pretty stretched.

And so I found myself footloose and fancy-free and out of a job.

And I thought, well, I could maybe go out to the main lab, the national lab, and try to get on, but I didn't like the idea of following their rules and regulations, and not being able to wear shorts to work, and things like that.

So I thought, well, I'll try to become a woodworker.

'Cause I'd kept a serious interest in woodworking, and it was traditional woodworking.

And about a year into this segue into woodworking, I happened upon a set of conditions of using veneer that I had on hand, that I didn't really know how to use, and I was making plywood out of it.

Well, I made plywood in a different way, and it was, it came out to be a different material.

And I knew it immediately because I tried to cut a snowflake out of this material.

And all of the other types of plywood, homemade plywood that I'd made over the years, had failed in something that fine.

And so when I tried to make fine, or tried to make a snowflake out of this new material, which I didn't realize at the time really was new, I was successful, and I was stunned.

And eventually, that afternoon, I made probably 30 snowflakes.

(Charles chuckles) And I walked out of the shop, and this was a true epiphany.

This was a life-changing moment.

I knew I was doing something that was completely out of my experience, and I'd never seen, never been able to do.

And not too long after that, I had to make a decision whether or not I needed to follow up on this observation and pursue it seriously with the skills that I developed as a basic researcher.

'Cause this really is basic research in woodworking that I'm doing now.

And I chose that pathway because Cathy Snyder, my partner all these years, was feeding me, and I didn't have to worry about making money.

(Charles chuckles) And that's a very privileged position to be in, in this world.

- It is.

If you're an artist, you've got to be able to still put something on the table or have somebody do that for you.

- I had a patron that I told you about.

- Yeah, wonderful.

Yes.

- And she was making pretty good money at the time, doing her thing.

And so she put food on the table, and I was free to pursue this.

And so I followed the material of what I ended up calling fine ply, down a lot of pathways just to explore to see what I could do with it.

And one of the things was the "Valhalla" piece.

We didn't talk about the base of it very much, but that's all out of fine ply, or at least the the structural part is.

And it's pretty delicate looking, but it is actually pretty strong.

- Well, Jerry, you've got the medium, the material, the fine ply.

You developed it, but I think you developed it so you could start executing what was in your mind, the ideas that you have.

How do you come up with ideas that definitely are way out of the box?

- Well, I remember the opinion that everybody should have a little irony in their life.

The irony in mine is that, through high school, I was the nerd.

I studied biology, and I studied chemistry and mathematics and whatever I can get my hands on that was hard science.

And I sneered, literally, at the people that were taking art.

And now, all these years later, (chuckles) I find myself perceived as an artist.

And it took a while for me to wrap my head around that idea that I was an artist, because I kept thinking, "Well, I'm a woodworker or I'm a scientist, or..." But, you know, eventually, even in my mind, it became clear that I'd segued somehow into the art field.

- So kind of the essence of the lab or research is, "What if I do this?"

- Because I'm exploring a new material, I try to figure out something that I think is maybe impossible to do, and see if I can do it, something that is impossible to build.

And so, currently, my work is getting successively finer in detail, to the point where, if I have to shape a piece of wood, I might not be able to hold it very well.

I have to this tiny little piece of wood in my hand and shape it.

So there's going to be a limit in that sense.

But every time I've tried to stretch this material and do something that I thought may might not be able to do it, it has responded to the challenge.

It's really remarkable stuff.

- What project or idea have you got kind of, I guess, fomenting in Jerry Spady right now, that you just got to do?

- Well, the one that I'm currently working on, which I call, "Truth."

And it's a sculpture that, some years, well, not some years ago, but about two years ago, I thought of something, and I knew it to be true, or at least I thought it was.

And I wondered at the time, "Well, why do I know that?"

So there's the question of why.

And I said, "Maybe I should try to build something that answers how we know what we know as a species."

Because we know a lot of stuff about our world, and it's not apparent, at least to me, how we come to know this stuff.

So I took a long view, and I involved the concept of the Indian mandalas, or wheels of life, and the concept of learning from each other, which was eloquently expressed by Isaac Newton.

'Cause he said, famously, "If I've seen further than some, it's because I've stood on the shoulders of giants," in which it implies that he learned from those preceding him, as we all do.

And we do that, not only as individuals, but we do that as societies, and as cultures, and as groups of people.

We learn something about the world around us, and then we transfer it to other people.

And if enough people accept this as being true, then that becomes our perceived truth.

And oftentimes, it can be verified by independent analysis from other groups of people.

And this is where science really is a good format for studying the world around you.

But there's also cautionary tales.

In the piece that I'm working on, to create this vision of, "How do we know what we know," the tabletop is a flat ocean.

Because, at one time, everybody thought the ocean and the earth was flat.

And that was perceived wisdom, and it turned out not to be true.

So the cautionary tale here is that, even if we think we know something out there that's true, it may not be.

- Well, we're sitting on evidence of the fact that not all deck boards are rectilinear.

- [Jerry] Yes, that's true.

(Charles chuckles) I plead guilty to the fact that I've outgrown rectilinear in my life.

- And the railings that we have here are nothing close to anything I've seen.

Maybe "Lord of the Rings"?

(chuckles) - Yeah, you know, that brings to mind, when I first saw "Lord of the Rings," the movie, my first thought was, "God, I wish I'd been a set builder on that movie."

- You'd have been perfect.

- Because it just, it fits my vision of how things should be.

But in the natural world, and I'm not a naturalist, really, but I look around me, and I think, there aren't any straight lines.

There aren't any right angles in nature.

And that's where we feel most comfortable.

So I've tried, out here in our lake place that Cathy and I have built for the last 50 years, I've tried to recreate a sense of comfort by avoiding rectilinear lines.

And it's working, at least for me.

- Well, I think so because I don't feel any dissonance sitting here amongst all of these different shapes.

- Yeah, it feels kinda like the woodwork below us is just sort of flowing over the lawn.

- Jerry, let's go to your shop and see how you use fine ply to make some of this beautiful work.

- That sounds good to me.

(saw swishes) (cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (saw swishes) - Well, Jerry, your work is just full of detail.

I mean, how in the world would you be able to cut this out and manipulate it and glue it down without it cracking in the short grain, which is just everywhere on this little guy?

- Well, we can walk through this process.

It starts with my going to the computer, which I don't spend much time on, but I've learned how to capture images off the computer.

And, in this case, I was looking for images from Easter Island, and all of these little critters here were on one boulder.

And they're not the typical Easter Island monoliths that you associate with that.

They did a lot of other imagery there.

And I thought, "Well, I might be able to make those."

So I printed those images off on a piece of paper.

And then the next step will be to cut this particular round piece.

We're gonna recreate this guy right here, which is this fella, and we'll cut this out, glue it, or tape it onto a piece of fine ply, which is the material that I have to use to make this.

And fine ply is a composite material that's made out of veneer, any type of veneer you want, and it's infused with epoxy under vacuum.

When it comes out, it's essentially plasticized wood.

No longer behaves like wood, but looks like wood.

- And so this fine ply, excuse the pun, it's at the core of what you do.

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

I've spent the last, I guess it's 23 years now, pursuing this material, trying to figure out how to use it best.

And this is the latest iteration of, I've gotten into some pretty fine detailed work.

I've also used it in larger scale.

So now I've got a piece of fine ply.

This happens to be padauk and maple.

And I've got a contrasting maple in the center, which adds, when you make a little piece like this and then shape it, you see a little edge of white around here.

It's almost like a line inlay around the perimeter of this little critter.

So the first thing I do, once I have my image, I take an exacto knife, and I cut this out.

And let's see...

Roll around here.

Now, I could cut the snout off of this one, but typically what I do would be to cut around here so that, when I want to make this guy, I haven't cut its nose off.

So here I've got the image, which is, where did this guy go?

Here.

That's that.

So we're going to make this guy right here from this image.

This is a two-dimensional image, in black and white in this case, and I will make it three dimensional in color.

Then I take just plain old, well, this is gift wrap tape, which has a little less adhesive on it than some of the other Scotch tapes.

And that's what I tend to use.

But any kind of transparent tape would work.

And I tape this down.

And that covers there.

Now we'll go over to the saw.

And I've got an Excalibur jigsaw that I'll just cut this out.

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) All right, so this is a little tricky getting this cut out because it's so finely detailed, but again, the material will hold up under the saw.

(saw whirring) (saw continues whirring) (saw continues whirring) (saw continues whirring) (saw continues whirring) So I've cut the image out around the perimeter, and what's left to do now is to refine the edges so that the little white strip will show when looking at it from this angle.

And then put an eye in, and then the piece will be complete.

So while we're here, I'll go ahead and put an eye in there, which is technically, it's technically difficult.

I take a drill and a bit.

(drill whirs) And the idea is to locate at approximately where you want the eye, and drill through the top layer, revealing the maple underneath.

So now you've got something that looks like an eye in the right place.

So the next step is to go over and file on it a little bit.

So I don't worry too much about it breaking, although it can break.

And if that happens, then a little bit of CA glue and a minute of waiting will solve that problem.

(file scraping) And then I just continue filing.

So you should be able to see the white edging appearing.

So here's the finished piece, here's the piece in progress.

And they'll look similar.

(saw swishes) - Jerry, I think that your journey is like a river, and it flows through- - I like that.

- so many unusual but beautiful thoughts and visions that you're able to turn into a sense of reality, a piece of art to express that.

This has been great.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, can't wait- - It's been fun.

- Can't wait to see some more Jerry Spady out of the box.

- Well, I hope there's more in the box to get out of.

(Charles laughs) (saw swishes) - I'm gonna be heading down the road to find a story of another great woodworker.

See you next time on the "Volunteer Woodworker."

(door thuds) (cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (saw swishes) - [Announcer] "Volunteer Woodworker" is funded in part by...

Since 1970, Whiteside Machine Company has been producing industrial-grade router bits in Claremont, North Carolina.

Whiteside makes carbide bits for edge forming, grooving, and CNC application.

Learn more at whitesiderouterbits.com.

Real Milk Paint Company makes VOC-free, non-toxic milk paint, available in 56 colors.

Milk Paint creates a matte wood finish that can be distressed for an antique look.

(gentle music) Good Wood Nashville designs custom furniture and is a supplier of vintage hardwoods.

Keri Price with Keller Williams Realty has been assisting Middle Tennessee home buyers and sellers since 2013.

Mayfield Hardwood Lumber, supplying Appalachian hardwoods worldwide.

Anna's creative lens, crafters of resin-on-wood decorative arts.

Visit charlesbrockchairmaker.com for all you need to know about woodworking.

If you'd like to learn even more, free classes in a variety of subjects are available for streaming from charlesbrockchairmaker.com.

(bright music) (vibrant music)