"Blessed is the man who has found his work"

Dwayne Colp became a woodworker after thirty odd years in the antiques business, specializing in the American Arts & Crafts movement. Doing restoration of original Stickley furniture for major galleries, as well as his own customers, gave him an insight into the joinery, design, and finishing of hundred year old antiques, and a passionate love for the style.

At the start, he realized his client's need for a coffee table to go in front of their period "mission oak" settle or morris chair. Since such a low, wide table was not made before 1920, Dwayne designed and built one from quartersawn white oak, with double keyed thru tenons, pegged mortise and tenon joints, and a splined top. Finished in a matte warm brown, this table fit in with period furniture from the early 20th century. That first effort has evolved into a range of designs that were not made then, but are functional and complimentary in today's interiors.

Expanded design possibilities became evident when he and his wife, Suzanne, visited the Gamble house in Pasadena. Designed by Greene and Greene in 1907, the house contains elements of the Japanese style so popular at the time.

Charles Greene designed furniture for his houses that softened the rectilinear lines of the Craftsman aesthetic, adding breadboard ends, subtle inlay, ebony splines, and the ubiquitous square peg. Since Greene and Greene, as well as Frank Lloyd Wright furniture was made for specific commisions, it is exteemely rare. D.M. Colp has replicated several of these museum pieces.

But Dwayne creates much more than reproductions. His own designs borrow from the masters of the Arts & Crafts movement, and serve purposes that those craftsmen never imagined. His current selection includes console, or sofa tables, dining tables, servers, seating, footstools, lamps, frames, doors, and several styles of coffee tables. Custom commissions are welcome.

"I am passionate about wood and the process of crafting it into something useful and beautiful. I love the smell of working it, the infinite variations in the grain of each board and the sensuous feel of a well-made joint or detail."

Dwayne's workshop is a converted carraige house behind a 1915 bungalow in a small village in the central Catskills where he and his wife live.

"I do not have a factory or any employees. Each piece is designed, constructed and finished by myself with careful attention to every detail. I hope you like them."