ABOVE PHOTO: Gerald Alston selling his beautiful wood wares. (Photos courtesy of Gerald Alston)
By Constance Garcia-Barrio
One Christmas, award-winning woodworker Gerald Alston gave his mother a fit.
“From childhood, I would take things apart, toys or whatever,” Alston recalls. “One Christmas when I was about 11, my mom bought me a radio. She got so mad at me when I took it apart. I put it back together again and it worked, but if you turned the dial too far to the right, it would get stuck. I would take the clear plastic cover off the dial and edge it back with a bobby pin.”
Alston’s early inclination toward tinkering earned him a scolding in childhood, but recently the urge to build and shape things may have contributed to his feel for woodworking, a craft he’s pursued since the 1990s. In 2021, Alston won recognition for his work.
This holiday season, Alston will display and sell his one-of-a-kind bowls, platters, spice boxes and other items at sites in Northwest Philadelphia.
He undertook his first woodworking at an early age. When he was about 9, his mother made it known that if he wanted money, he had to go out and earn it, Alston, who grew up in South Philadelphia, said.
“I would sell shopping bags on 9th Street and shine shoes. I made my own wooden shoeshine box to carry polish, brushes, and rags,” said Alston, who is currently living in Mt. Airy. He has two adult daughters — one in Delaware County and one in Overbrook.
The shoeshine box served its purpose as did Alston’s next project.
“I made a pine bookshelf in wood shop at Bartlett Jr. High School,” he said
Time brought other accomplishments. Alston earned his undergraduate degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, then a degree from Rutgers University Law School.
“I practiced law in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor, then I went into private practice, handling things like personal injury and bankruptcy,” he said.
When Alston grew weary of law, he decided to make a seismic career shift.
“I opened a restaurant in North Philadelphia with a friend — the hardest work I ever did,” he said. “People see a drawer full of cash and think you’re doing well, but you have a narrow profit margin. If you clear 10 to 12%, you’re doing well.”
By the mid-1990s, Alston found himself looking for a hobby. He turned to woodworking — perhaps, in part, because of past success. His mother treasured the bookshelf that he’d made in wood shop in junior high.
“She had it in her bedroom for 50 years,” Alston said of his late mother. “You would have thought that I’d built her a house.”
Alston began learning his craft without the internet or YouTube, which hadn’t been developed yet. He read books and articles, then tackled simple projects. He would buy a tool for one project, then purchase another tool for something more ambitious.
“In time, I took the leap and bought a lathe,” Alston said. “I would build little tables and toy boxes. I began making bowls a few years ago.”
At first, Alston gave away the bowls to family and friends.
“Someone reminded me that anyone will take something you give them as a gift, but the true test of craftsmanship is whether people will pay money for it,” he said.
Alston didn’t shrink from the challenge, perhaps, in part, because his mother had always encouraged him to try new things.
“If I said that I could build a rocket to go to the moon, she’d say, ‘I think you can do it,” he said. “She never dissuaded you.”
Alston put himself to the test with the 2021 Manayunk Art Festival and came away with being judged the best in his category.
“That was a juried show,” he said. “It meant something.”
Alston sees woodworking as requiring a partnership between the craftsman and the wood.
“Each piece of wood is totally different,” he said. “Sometimes you’ll try to fight the wood to make a certain form, but that doesn’t work. It’s a partnership.”
A tree writes its story in the grain of the wood, Alston said. If a beetle bores into a box elder, the tree releases a red substance to fight the damage. That red shows up in bowls and platters, looking like a painted line. Such markings set handmade items apart, unlike many faux woods that often have a uniform appearance, he said.
Alston has his favorite woods. He prefers maple for its lovely grain patterns. Tulip poplar comes in a close for second for beauty.
“It’s a softer wood that’s easier to work,” Alston said.
He likes black walnut because it makes an elegant bowl.
“I’m dying to try olive, but it’s not indigenous to this area, which makes it very expensive,” he said. “The more exotic the wood, the more it costs.”
On the other hand, Alston can get a carload of wood for $15 from the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center.
“All you have to do is cut your own wood, but you need a good chain saw if you’re going to be out there all day,” he said.
Burl wood, a rounded outgrowth on a tree believed to be caused when a tree’s growth hormones are disrupted due to stress, presents a challenge that Alston enjoys. It demands painstaking work but can result in spectacular pieces.
“Many rise to the level of art,” Alston said of his work, all of which is finished with food-safe products.
Besides resulting in lovely practical items, woodworking can induce deep calm, Alston finds.
“You enter into a meditative state,” he said. “It’s higher than relaxing. It’s magical, a profound form of concentration. Sometimes I have to wake myself up.”Alston’s work costs from $15 for a little salt-pinch bowl to $180 for a bowl made of catalpa, a wood from warm regions like the Caribbean or South America. He sells his work at Vera Doyle, located at 7118 Germantown Avenue, a Black, woman-owned gift shop that has home décor and other items made chiefly by BIPOC and women-owned businesses.
Alston will also be selling his wares in person at the Holiday Art Market at the Mt. Airy Art Garage, located at 7054 Germantown Avenue, on December 16 and 17 from noon to 6 p.m. For more information, visit: https://mtairyartgarage.org/, or call: (267) 323-2312. Additionally, you can visit: https://gmaturnedbowls.com/, or call: (215) 867-6200.
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