FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — When it comes to original art, Jim Duffy is somewhat of an expert. The Forsyth County man says he first studied art at the age of 6 and eventually won awards with his paintings.
“The painting is going great,” Duffy said. “I just had a one-man show at Emory University. So that was cool, but I'd rather be building than painting right now.”
Even when he’s not painting, he’s still creating original art – mostly with wood.
“I figured it was time to do something in my retirement that would be fun to do,” Duffy said. “Making things has always been something that I've enjoyed.”
He’s one of many vendors each month at the Lakewood 400 Antiques Market.
“I first got involved with Lakewood, the old Lakewood, in downtown on Lakewood,” he said. “That was back about 1987 or 1988, something like that. We started small and gradually increased our space to where we have about 26 spaces now.”
Duffy says he loves being part of the Lakewood family for a variety of reasons. He gets to sell his work, he’s constantly meeting interesting people, and he’s able to spend time with his wife, Cali.
“She's very talented,” Duffy said “She can put things together and make them look beautiful where I can't. I tend to stack everything up. But she puts it to where it looks really good together.”
He also works alongside his longtime apprentice, David.
“He’s an amazing guy. I first met him 12 to 15 years ago,” Duffy said. ”He's the strongest most wonderful guy in the world.”
He says they’ve been making things together for about 20 years, and he’s seen lots of changes.
“In 20 years, I've seen wood prices go from say 50 cents a board foot to $1.61 a board foot,” Duffy said. “So everything's going crazy. Nails have almost doubled.”
Despite the rising cost of supplies, Duffy says he tries to avoid too much of a markup.
“I try to keep the prices down on tables simply because young people buy a lot of my tables, and I want to keep it to where they can afford them,” he said. “I build a lifetime table. I don't build a table that's going to fall apart or peel or whatever. I think it's the time that I take to build it, the actual construction process. We use nothing but the finest materials. So, we make a table that I think is going to last at least a couple of generations, passed down from mom and dad to children to whomever.”
See more of Duffy's creations here.
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