J
eny and Lee DeMorat team up in successful woodworking business
BY BARBARA MILLER
Staff Correspondent
TROUT RUN - “If it’s wood, it’s
good,” says Jerry DeMorat of R 1
Trout Run, Lycoming County. It’s
a slogan Jerry and husband, Lee,
take to heart.
In addition to Jerry’s energetic
involvement with the local 4-H and
Extension offices, active par
ticipation in school and church
affairs, and a host of other in
terests, Jerry and Lee started
Beechgrove Woodcrafts four years
ago.
Although Lee has a full-time job
working for the phone company,
Jerry and he spend nights and
weekends in their shop making
various wood items to sell.
The DeMorats live with their
daughter, Christie, 10, and son,
Leo, 8, in a 100-year-old farmhouse
situated on 10 acres of land north of
Williamsport. Jerry, who grew up
in this rural area, has merely to
look out a window to glimpse her
childhood home a short distance
down the hill. Although her father
was a timberjack, many of her
Lee and Jerry work side by side to assemble a toy box
Jerry punches copper into an efpple design
relatives owned farms nearby
where she occasionally helped with
farm chores. She was also a
member of 4-H. Lee, the son of a
carpenter, is from the Wilkes-
Barre area.
It was through the impending
birth of their daughter 11 years ago
that Jerry became involved in
woodworking. Lee had been
working steadily to finish a crib,
cradle, and changing table for the
new arrival. But time was getting
short.
‘‘lt was getting closer and closer
to my time,” Jerry recalls, “so I
helped with the baby furniture.”
After that the DeMorats con
tinued to construct as they had
need, making such items as a
trestle table, a gun cabinet, and
occasionally restoring an old
piece. With few exceptions all their
furniture is either of their own
handcrafted origin or pieces they
have restored.
Soon they began receiving
requests for a wooden bread box
with a punched copper insert
which they often made and gave
Lee and Jerry display their popular bread box and spice rack. Both items feature the
popular heart panel design.
away as a wedding gift. And so
their business began. Thus far,
Jerry says, they’ve sold about 50
bread boxes, and it still remains
one of their most popular items.
The DeMorats joined thr
Williamsport chapter of thi
Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmei
in 1982 and were “juried” in 1983.
To become a juried member of thr
guild meant their work had to meet
stringent requirements. Aftei
becoming a juried member the:
were allowed to exhibit their work
in a craft shows and participate in
marketing seminars.
Ideally, Jerry says, she wouli
like to spend four hours a day in the
shoprbut on an average Tt lisuallf
works out to two hours. Then aftei
Lee gets home from work, ha:
supper, and rests an hour, the:
work together in the shop from
until 11 o’clock.
“Everything is a joint effort,
Jerry says.
Concerning the actual con
struction of an item though, Jerry
notes, “We have a division oi
labor. He cuts out and assemble:
and I do the finishing.”
Jerry also does the coppei
punching, an art she became in
terested in soon after she started
with woodworking. She draws hei
own designs-anything from
butterflies and hearts to geometric
patterns-and uses a nail to punch
them into thin copper sheets.
The sheets may become part of a
bread box or another popular item
such as the “pie safe.” A pie safe,
Jerry explains, is a shelved cup
board used to store pies. It often
had punched copper or tin inserts
in the doors which allowed air
circulation while disallowing flies.
Today, Jerry says, pie safes may
be used to store a variety of items.
According to Jerry, their wood
business has done well enough to
have completely equipped their
shop with an array of woodworking
equipment. They have jointers, a
lathe, various sanders, a
drillpreSs, and several saws.
Although their woodworking
operation does provide an extra
income, the main ingredient of
their business is enjoyment, says
Jerry. They developed their
woodworking operation in part
because they wanted a retirement
business. They hope to travel to
craft shows all over the United
States some day.
Jerry says she particularly
enjoys working with wood,
“Because when I’m finishing a
piece and staining it, 1 can watch
the beauty of the wood come 0ut...1
also like the satisfaction of a new
design that works' out. ”
Lee nods assent to this, noting
that when they’ve finished a piece
that has turned out well, “We just
sit and look at it.”
Lee says he gets satisfaction
m putting together “good solid
joints and something that’s going
This pie safe is one of the DeMorat’s most prized pieces,
and one, Jerry says, most often admired at shows.
to last for a while.”
Looking to the future, the
DeMorats say they plan to convert
a chicken bam into a studio
showroom and arrange home
parties. To promote sale of their
merchandise, they plan to show
slides or movies showing how their
products are made at parties.
Jerry became a 4-H leader of the
Cogan House 4-H Community Club
four years ago. The club currently
has 35 members. Jerry teaches
sewing and for the past two years,
she proudly reports, several of her
proteges have progressed to the
county fashion review and five to
regional competitions. One
brought home a blue ribbon from
regional competition. Lee also
teaches woodworking.
During the past year the
t/Zeies
DeMorats hosted the annual
Lycoming County 4-H pcinic; they
ajso hosted an IFYE student from
the Netherlands. Jerry is currently
chairman of the Lycoming County
advisory board, which plans 4-H
activities on a yearly basis.
Jerry thinks 4-H is a terrific
program. She says it is a “hands
on” learning experience where
members take things learned in
school and apply them. Un
derstanding of such things as
fractions increases dramatically,
according to Jerry, when a
member must measure a 5/8-inch
seam correctly to complete a dress
or learn to read a tape measure
properly to do a woodworking
project.
Parental enthusiasm is one
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