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(In)lay Man: Chisolm Leonard’s intricate wood inlays give his handmade, oldfashioned furniture the ultimate custom touch. For more, go to brandnewsecondhanddesigns.com
Chisolm Leonard of Hendersonville, NC, makes an age-old art his own / by Laura Linen
Photographs by Patrick Cox/Cox Photography
Photographs courtesy of Three Pines View
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loodlines reveal more than physical traits. What about artistic talent? Chisolm Leonard credits a distant relative’s prowess for furniture craft and restoring as part of his genetic code. Through transforming wood into beautiful inlays and furniture designs, Leonard is actually warping time. By reproducing pieces from a bygone but treasured era, the artist rediscovers, revitalizes, and reinvents custom-made furniture—handmade, in a time-honored, old-fashioned way. Whether by way of genetics or osmosis, Chisolm has a passion and talent for woodworking. Words like mortise, tenon, dovetails, and hide glue may need googling by most of us, but these are facets and materials of woodworking that are second nature to him. He selects such materials and methods because of their history: these sought-after Charleston antiques survived earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and fires. The fine woods that Leonard uses for his furniture, black walnut, mahogany, and heart pine, while somewhat expensive, are also chosen for reasons of preservation and beauty. Leonard began his path with a broad scope. Building log cabins in Telluride taught large-scale carpentry skills, then a multi-year apprenticeship with premier antique restoration expert David Beckford in Charleston, South Carolina (Leonard’s hometown), combined with his current work at Barnhardt’s Restoration, refined his touch. After exposure to various antiques, restorations, and history, Leonard focused primarily on the art of inlay. Most inlays, made from American Boxwood, chosen for its “clear” quality, are intricate additions to almost any piece of furniture. The artist crafts blue marlins, mallards, flowers, leaves, or special requests. A well-known media magnate ordered custom tables with quail inlays, but needed them in three weeks; however, Leonard’s work doesn’t happen overnight, and there are no elves. Each intricately designed inlay may often take a week to make, full-time. Named after a Peter Tosh song, Chisolm’s company Brand New Secondhand is exactly that—no, not the secondhand gal Tosh was singing about, but a breath of new life into the traditional aspects of inlay and furniture craft. A second chance to make history.
40 TOWN / towncarolina.com
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4/19/13 1:39 PM
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