Keeping up with the Joneses
Keeping up with the Joneses
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer
KIHEI - You probably didn't know it, but if you ever went out to eat at a nice restaurant in Hawaii, there's a good chance you sat on a chair or at a table made by Frank and Kate Jones.
The Joneses live in Shelton, Wash., now, but a new, large, showy and - to those who remember their business The Wooden Stitch - surprising piece of work is prominently visible on South Kihei Road.
It's a 22-foot-wide driveway gate they made for friends Ed and Pam Bello at their new oceanfront home at 840 S. Kihei Road.
"It'll be here long after we're gone," said Jones last week, as he took a break from some honey-do chores for his daughter, who still lives on Maui.
Instead of wood, the gate is aluminum, The billet of half-inch-thick metal weighed 900 pounds before Jones started sculpting it.
The Joneses arrived on Maui on Kamehameha Day 1976, fleeing the wet of Alaska, with an 18-month-old daughter and another on the way.
Pam Bello recalls when they opened The Wooden Stitch, which in those days sold unfinished furniture, in the Old Kahului Store, with small children in a playpen behind the counter.
"I'm still lugging their furniture from house to house," she says.
"Frank is truly a craftsman and an innovator, like you don't see any more."
By 1990, when the Joneses sold The Wooden Stitch and moved to Washington, their business had 18 employees and a statewide reputation for fine cabinetry and joinery.
Their home in Maui Meadows was a showplace of koa work, and when Hurricane Iniki devastated Kauai, T S Restaurants called them back from the Mainland to replace hundreds of valuable pieces wrecked in the storm.
Frank recalls teaching waiters to sand as they worked to get the restaurants back in business.
Jones says he gets better Hawaiian hardwoods by working in Washington than he did when he lived here, because there is no sawmill in the islands. He can now select fine pieces at the mill near their home on Puget Sound, and cabinetmakers on Maui can settle for the inferior stuff.
Though the Joneses were known for koa when they worked on Maui, today Jones does more work with mango wood.
He finds it relaxing to work with Kate and not have to worry about managing a large staff. Plus, they can pick up and spend weeks, if necessary, on a project, as they did for the Bellos and also for other friends in San Diego recently.
Their new business is Jones and Jones Designs (commercial, residential, marine) and besides custom work in wood, they continue to team up with one of their original Maui friends, Bruce Dunbar, to buy old boats, rip out the woodwork and completely rebuild them.
Besides access to better wood in Washington, the sailing is better, too.
When they lived on Maui, they had two boats blown ashore, including one wrecked in the memorable storm of 1980.
Jones and Jones Designs is at 180 S.E. Vic King Road, Shelton, Wash., can be reached at (360) 790-6577 and can be found online at www.jonesandjonesdesigns.com.
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer
KIHEI - You probably didn't know it, but if you ever went out to eat at a nice restaurant in Hawaii, there's a good chance you sat on a chair or at a table made by Frank and Kate Jones.
The Joneses live in Shelton, Wash., now, but a new, large, showy and - to those who remember their business The Wooden Stitch - surprising piece of work is prominently visible on South Kihei Road.
It's a 22-foot-wide driveway gate they made for friends Ed and Pam Bello at their new oceanfront home at 840 S. Kihei Road.
"It'll be here long after we're gone," said Jones last week, as he took a break from some honey-do chores for his daughter, who still lives on Maui.
Instead of wood, the gate is aluminum, The billet of half-inch-thick metal weighed 900 pounds before Jones started sculpting it.
The Joneses arrived on Maui on Kamehameha Day 1976, fleeing the wet of Alaska, with an 18-month-old daughter and another on the way.
Pam Bello recalls when they opened The Wooden Stitch, which in those days sold unfinished furniture, in the Old Kahului Store, with small children in a playpen behind the counter.
"I'm still lugging their furniture from house to house," she says.
"Frank is truly a craftsman and an innovator, like you don't see any more."
By 1990, when the Joneses sold The Wooden Stitch and moved to Washington, their business had 18 employees and a statewide reputation for fine cabinetry and joinery.
Their home in Maui Meadows was a showplace of koa work, and when Hurricane Iniki devastated Kauai, T S Restaurants called them back from the Mainland to replace hundreds of valuable pieces wrecked in the storm.
Frank recalls teaching waiters to sand as they worked to get the restaurants back in business.
Jones says he gets better Hawaiian hardwoods by working in Washington than he did when he lived here, because there is no sawmill in the islands. He can now select fine pieces at the mill near their home on Puget Sound, and cabinetmakers on Maui can settle for the inferior stuff.
Though the Joneses were known for koa when they worked on Maui, today Jones does more work with mango wood.
He finds it relaxing to work with Kate and not have to worry about managing a large staff. Plus, they can pick up and spend weeks, if necessary, on a project, as they did for the Bellos and also for other friends in San Diego recently.
Their new business is Jones and Jones Designs (commercial, residential, marine) and besides custom work in wood, they continue to team up with one of their original Maui friends, Bruce Dunbar, to buy old boats, rip out the woodwork and completely rebuild them.
Besides access to better wood in Washington, the sailing is better, too.
When they lived on Maui, they had two boats blown ashore, including one wrecked in the memorable storm of 1980.
Jones and Jones Designs is at 180 S.E. Vic King Road, Shelton, Wash., can be reached at (360) 790-6577 and can be found online at www.jonesandjonesdesigns.com.
posted by DP at 10:01 PM
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