FEATURE - Working wood from the Family Tree

Roy Welling shows off some of the woodworking that graces his Fielding home. Some are his, like the table and some are his father's, like the wall hanging. All photos are property of BRVNews

FIELDING - Ellen Cook, Headliner media specialist, January 20, 2022

Question: How much wood could a Welling work if a Welling could work wood?

In Fielding, that little ditty adds up to quite a bit! Three generations of Welling men have worked in wood and created beautiful pieces of art while enjoying a unique and often undervalued hobby.

It began back in the early 1900s with Truman LeRoy Welling, who learned the art of Marquetry (arranging quarter-inch thick wood chips into a design) during a college course while studying to be an engineer. It became a creative pastime for him, one he passed on to his son, Gale Welling.

Gale and Truman often used their creative juices on projects and designs. Most of those early pieces were decorative checkerboards, made with very few crafting tools and a limited amount of wood varieties, taken from fallen trees or donated by friends.

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This checkboard is one created by Roy grandfather, Truman. Like Roy, Truman's work often went to family members.

A third partner came in the form of Roy Welling, Gale’s son, who, while just a youngster, was brought in to help sand wood pieces and add a final coat of varnish to each woodworking masterpiece.

Over the years those patterned planks have found their way into homes across the county, given as gifts to friends and family, 60 or more at the hands of Truman and well over 100 created by Gale.

Although he spent a lot of time in the woodshop with his father, and, in his words, “I enjoyed seeing the beauty at the end,” Roy never had the time nor the desire to carry on the tedious artform. But when he retired as an educator in 2005, he decided “to see if I couldn’t do it myself.”

He was so glad he did.

Roy was able to work side-by-side with his father, learning from a master craftsman, for just two years before Gale passed away. It was enough time to glean important tips and advice from the elder Welling and for Roy to become an artisan in his own right.

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Roy believes in keeping track of all his creations. He has a notebook with each one numbered, what it was and who received it. That was something his father and grandfather did not do so he has no idea where those works are today.

Today Roy can be found most days in his well-equipped workshop, planning, patterning, planing, piecing and polishing one or another wooden project.

“I don’t think there is anything more beautiful than natural wood,” he said. “There are so many varieties and colors and textures and grains, it is just absolutely fabulous. It is just fun as an artwork because you can’t put the same textures and colors or shades together. You have got to vary it with other textures and grains and figures, planes, the lights, the darks. You have to get all of that in there.”

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This wall hanging has over 51 different types of wood and 183 pieces.

Roy compares it to making a quilt, using wood instead of fabric. In fact, he often uses his wife’s quilt books for pattern ideas.

Unlike those early creations made by his grandfather, however, Roy has over 120 different varieties of woods at his disposal, ranging in color from almost white to black ebony. Then each piece of wood can vary in texture, as well, depending on where it comes from in the tree itself. The possibilities become endless.

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The Welling woodshop features more than 120 different types of wood, from ordinary pine to exotics from as far away as New Zealand.

“I think God had more fun creating wood than He did anything,” Roy laughed, and says he has just as much fun putting that wood together into one of his finished tabletops or wall hangings. But he claims to be no respecter of wood and doesn’t prefer one type over another.

“There isn’t a best,” he said. “I can use all kinds. I’ve got pine and cedar all the way up to the hardest woods that there are, ebony and mountain mahogany and those kinds. Some of them are hard to work with because they are so soft, and you have a hard time sanding them or so hard that they fray and chip, but they all have their value and their worth and their beauty. Even the worst of wood can be used for something.”

To put that wood, whatever its quality, into his art is a labor of love and begins with the planning.

“You have to decide what you are making,” Roy said. “Then you have to cut a piece of plywood to the right length and the width. That is your base.”

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Roy starts with a piece of quality plywood cut the size he wants for the finished project.

On that base he then draws out the pattern he has already laid out on a sheet of graph paper. Next it is the difficult task of picking out the right contrast in woods. “You get it (the wood pieces) all out and see what looks good with what, what is right between figured and lined and solid, colored and bright and dark, just what goes well with each other.” It is much like an artist choosing the color scheme for a painting.

When he is satisfied with the choices, he begins cutting small pieces out of the bigger wood blocks he has. If they are to be the same from one side of the work to the other, the wood is cut through the center so that they are mirrored images. The angles must be correct so that all ends and edges meet exactly. That means sanding is required to get a cohesive result.

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A base of plywood is the starting ground as the design is drawn on and then individual pieces or put into place.

“You have to sand them to perfection so there are no gaps in them,” Roy said.

Then each piece is secured with wood glue. That can mean hundreds of tiny wood pieces in a host of wood varieties fitted together like a tight-fitting puzzle.

“You have to be careful with that,” he cautioned. “It’s like painting a room. You can’t paint yourself into a corner. You have to make sure you can slide those pieces in and out. Some work better center out and some side to side.”

A border is added, along with a skirt around the edges to give it a completed finish.

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Sanding each piece to a precise size is required to make the puzzle complete.

When dried, Roy takes the creation to Everwood, Inc., in Honeyville where it is sent through a sander to make sure the top is even. “We used to do all the sanding by hand,” he said. “But this makes it just so much smoother.” He does a little fine sanding just to make sure there are no machine marks anywhere.

His artwork is then coated with tung oil to preserve the natural wood. In his apprentice days, however, that was not the case. “Back then we use varnish to start with, but it just turned yellow. Then they went to poly, which was a lot better. But now I use tung oil because it keeps the wood from oxidizing quite so bad. I like the fact that tongue oil helps it maintain its natural look. I don’t use epoxy. Poly still works if you are in a kitchen or bath area." he added

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Just one of the many pieces of wooden art pieces created in Roy’s workshop.

“There is about 20 minutes of time put into each individual piece of wood,” Roy estimated, and the entire project takes about six weeks of labor. He then gives each an added personal touch. On the back he documents the number of the work, the design and what kind of wood went into the construction. And in all the projects he has made, no two have ever been alike.

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Each piece get a little background attached - the number, the date and the wood used.

So, what does this worker of wood get out of that time spent? It is not money, because he does not sell his creations. He said he is making them to give to his posterity as something to remember him by after he has gone, much like so many of the pieces he has decorating his home, pieces made by his grandfather and father.

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This checkerboard was also a gift to Roy from his grandfather.

“I’ve had a lot of requests for my work,” he said, “but I turn them down because they are not in the family. I tell them I have to take care of my grandchildren first. So, I have an adoption list.”

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The top wall hanging is the same pattern as the quilt on the Welling's bed, one made by his wife, while the two below are works for granddaughters. Roy can name the woods in each piece like an arborist, because he works with them almost daily.

He is also passing the craft on to that same posterity. A son has put time into making his own wood pieces and a grandson is also spending creative time in his grandfather’s shop, learning the ins and outs of working with wood.

Making use of that family tree, in whatever form, it seems, will continue in the Welling clan. Truman and Gale would be proud.

This wall hanging was made for a family reunion, but Roy's wife, Anne, loved it so much, she kept it. There are eight kinds of wood that make up the color range in it.

These are two table tops Roy made for grandchildren. They pick their pattern and shades, he puts the woods in place.