Sunday, March 30, 2014 4:00 am | Updated: 7:42 am, Sun Mar 30, 2014.
By Richard Yeakley ryeakley@news-journal.com
After more than a quarter century making furniture, lighting and sculptures with horns and antlers, Jeff White considers himself a craftsman.
White, the owner of White Oak’s Little Big Horns, crafts each piece that leaves his workroom by hand, sacrificing quantity to be able to give a personal seal of approval to each piece.
“It’s not just a job for me, it’s a craft. It’s making something,” he said. “I am excited about making something that (makes) people go ‘wow.’ ”
And “wow” people have gone.
Since leaving the hair cutting profession in 1988 to begin crafting furniture with one of his clients, White’s work has — through word of mouth — found its way into the homes and properties of Ross Perot, Ted Turner, Jay Novacek, Ed Belfour, Larry Gatlin and Sharon Young of Sharon Young Clothing/Sharon Young Stores.
It also has been featured in magazines such as D Magazine, Country Home Magazine and Architectural Digest Magazine, and been featured on “Extreme Home Makeover” on ABC.
His career took him from Dallas to Fredericksburg and to White Oak, where he works from his home without a store front, selling online, made-to-order pieces.
Most recently, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City agreed to purchase his original sculptures.
“Rich people aren’t rich because they are lucky. They are smart and pretty savvy,” he said. “They know the worth of something, what the fair market value of things are. … These billionaires like that reuse me to reorder as their properties grow, as their houses enlarge. The reason they call me back, because they know … I am not a price gouger.”
In his early days, Jeff split his time making the artwork and gathering the antlers to use.
Because many animals shed their antlers, White would make trips to the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Teton National Park and walk trails picking up antlers.
Later, he formed relationships with people who gathered antlers and sold them to international markets and to craftsmen around the nation.
White said a part of his success throughout the years had been his timing for getting into the business.
“The concept has been around for thousands of year, but the look nationwide was brand new,” he said. “Back then, a ranch could constitute 10 acres; now we could get antler chandeliers. It exploded and within a matter of years ... I had made friends with some of these big players.”
Because he now operates without a store front, White said it was the work of Alan Strickland of Alan Strickland Photography and Chris McNabb of Key Creative, a website design firm, that gives him a global presence.
“It is only by these people that I look good,” he said.
White builds chandeliers, furniture, lamps, mirrors, knives and other items.
When he took off in January 1991, White opened a permanent showroom in Dallas in the Dallas Market Center and in a week took more than $25,000 worth of orders.
White can be reached by phone at (903) 297-2222 for distributor, retail, decorator or private price list.
His work station is at 1104 Idlewood Drive in White Oak.
http://www.news-journal.com/features/local/art-and-antlers-white-oak-man-has-passion-for-crafting/article_0bcefbf9-71fa-5f33-8093-eed2c82c0b0d.html
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