Tar Heel Profile
By Sarah Friday
Carving A Memory
leftovers from I lurricanc Hugo provided the inspiration for
Gastonia woodworker Flay 'Ferres' unique individual art form.
Flay I'crrcs at work on another
piece of wood in his Gastonia shop.
Flay Torres of Gastonia looks up
from a spinning chunk of wal-
mu and grins in anticipation.
“You want to see chips
Пу?“
lu* asks as he reaches for a caning tool
and leans toward Ins wood-turning lathe.
I
и
seconds, small brown flecks the
«
olor of shaved chocolate shoot through
the air as Ton es presses the tool to the
wood. In minutes, he shapes another
graceful vase like the ones that made
him famous after Hurricane Hugo left
its mat k.
“Instead of having to pay people to
haul trees, why not make something I
could remember Hugo by?" he recalls
thinking.
“He thought he might make a few
ducks, but he wasn’t satisfied," jokes his
wife. Betty.
A cranberry-colored glass vase in their
living room caught his eye one day. and
he asked Betty if slic’d like one made of
wood.
Yes. she said. So he made one — then
alniut 200 more.
“I Ic has made it his
own individual art
form." says Terri Mar¬
shall. executive director
of the United Arts
Council of Gaston
County. "It’s traditional
but isn’t."
His vases reflect the
liaditiou of the moun¬
tain craftsmen of the
state, she explains. But
it detours from the
usual forms of pottery
and sculpture.
Most stand about
seven inches tall and
five or six inches wide.
And each one looks dif¬
ferent. with colors, shapes and character
all its own.
’There, you can see
the heart," he says,
pointing out rich waves
of dark walnut uncov¬
ered in the wood.
Since November
1989. Torres, t>6. has
been transforming the
bland into the beauti¬
ful by creating striking
original vases from dis¬
carded blocks ol wood.
Now. carving a memo¬
ry from local trees has
become the trademark
of this Gaston County
woodworker.
The retired machin¬
ist had run meial lath¬
es in machine shops for -10 years. But
before 1989 he had never made a vase
on his simple wood-turning lathe at
home, just a few knickknacks and toys.
"It .Malted with Hugo's leftover s."Ter-
rcs says, lingering an unfinished hunk of
wood.
On September 21, 1989, dogwoods,
poplars, pines and sweet-gum trees cov¬
ered the Tcrrcscs’ two-acre lot off I ow-
cll-Bcthcsda Road in Gastonia. On
September 22. Hugo struck 40 ol them
down.
But the storm that ripped the trees
from their roots planted the seed of an
idea in ferrcs’ mind.
To make his vases, the tall, lanky man
with thick, strong lingers researches
••aril type of wood Irefore he begins.
"I Ic goes to the library and checks out
every book with ‘wood’ on it." teases
Betty. "He even has me looking at dif¬
ferent trees on the side of the road."
So fai , Tei res says he has carved more
than 30 kinds of wood, such as black wal¬
nut. mulberry, persimmon, sumac,
crabapple and birch.
At first he used only nature’s woodpile
stacked from the storm. Now he gathers
regional woods from fallen trees or
The State/J anuaiy 1994
34
cleared lands, but never cuts down trees
to use.
“We arc well blessed in North Caroli¬
na to have so many species ol trees." he
says, lu fact, more species exist in the
Ci eat Smoky Mountains National Park
(50) than in all of Kuropc.
Next. Terrcs studies each piece of
wood as he sets it to the lathe. If the tree
was small, he may use it all. If it was
large, he cuts it in half, unveiling the
heart.
He strips the bark, then dries each
block naturally or in the microwave if the
wood is green. Then he shapes the
chunks into cylinders and sets one to his
lathe.
He canes flowing curves with some ol
his own handmade tools as the lathe
begins to turn. And he hunts for nature's
imperfections such as knots, worm holes,
bark and spalling — spiderweb-like etch¬
ings from the fungus of a tree.
Patient sanding and six coats of
polyui ethane polish his vases to an
unusual glass-like sheen. Kacli bears a
brass plate with the date and his name,
along with the type of tree and number
of the vase.
Unfolding the mysteries of one piece
fuels the lire for the next.
"I was surprised as much as anyone
else that there was such beauty under the
bark.’ Terres says. "When you just sec a
tree standing there and its bark, you
don’t know what's under there."
Finding that beauty is one of Terres'
gifts, friends ay.
"He seems to capture the uniqueness
of that wood and not make everything
perfect," says Ann Kccver of Lincolnton,
who has trough t several of Terres’ wares.
“He just lets the character of the wood
dictate the vase."
A black knot and a "V" sha|>c decorate
the base and neck of a greenish sumac
vase recently on display in Gastonia.
Nearby, a spalled birch the color of cof¬
fee ice cream looks dripped with choco¬
late syrup inside and out. "Nature's cal¬
ligraphy." they call it. Terres says.
One of Betty’s favorites is a small tan
vase molded from a dogwood felled by
I lurricanc I fugo that held a barbed-wire
fence her lather raised. Holes from the
staples still show.
A sassafras vase circled in light brown
waves brings back memories for Torres.
He used to swing on the tree at the fam-