Woodworkers craft business in downtown Tampa

In a century-old downtown building, two artisans from different parts of the world with a common passion for exotic wood work together daily, designing and crafting unique pieces of their signature furniture.

Tampa resident Carl Johnson and Alison Swann-Ingram, a native of England who has worked around the world and came here from Oregon, comprise the two-member team that is Franklin Street Fine Woodwork.

The story of two talented woodworkers of vastly different backgrounds launching a high-end specialty business is as interesting as their joint success, recently reinforced by an invite to display an $11,000 piece at a prestigious New York City furniture show.

Their 3,500-square-foot shop is all business, equipped with band saws and carver's benches, an articulating vise and a router dependent upon the operator to fashion the grooves, not some computer-driven pattern.

"Alison and I still enjoy the process of making the pieces by hand," Johnson says matter of factlty. While assorted woods and projects in various stages fill some of the floor space, prospective clients cannot expect to see completed pieces.

"We don't have an inventory because we do commission work," Johnson explains. "Right now we're probably running four to five months out," he said of the time between the commissioning of a piece and work commencing.

"All the doors here are ones we built in our shop so we would have something to show clients when they come," custom creations that serve as samples, of sorts, Johnson said. The interior doors of poplar, each with five raised panels, were initially slated for painting, but the painter balked, said Swann-Ingram. "I'm not painting these; let us just put a clear-coat on," the painter said emphatically, a suggestion the creators heeded.

About 90 percent of the pieces the pair create at the shop at 1609 N. Franklin St. are dining tables, buffets, dressers and other furniture, but the company also makes doors, entryway gates, historic window reproductions and architectural moldings.

"It's mainly people that have a space in their house where they need that one signature piece of furniture," said Johnson. "They want it to be something of a very unique design that goes with the other designed pieces they have in their house, or there's something particular they're looking for in a size, and then they give us great latitude in design."

Prices range from $2,500 for a small table to $15,000 to $25,000 for large, complex, embellished pieces.

"All of the pieces that we make are built to last for generations," said Swann-Ingram. "Carl and I decided a long time ago, we're not production-line furniture, we are singular unique signature pieces that are truly high craft.

"When a client gets a piece of furniture from us they not only get a piece of furniture that will last many generations," she said, "they also get Carl and I; we are always going to be available to them."

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One example: Four years ago, a client commissioned a 10-foot-long buffet for a second-floor dining room, a location that posed a unique challenge. After the walnut piece was designed and built, it had to be disassembled for the trip upstairs, then re-assembled.

Mission accomplished – until a recent call from the client, now relocating elsewhere in Tampa. "We're moving and we don't want the movers to touch this, so we need for you to come move it," the client said of the huge buffet. Johnson returned to the home and, once again, disassembled the mortise-and-tenon joinery for the move to new surroundings.

About 40 to 50 percent of the business is from former customers, in the Tampa Bay area. The company website Swann-Ingram designed -- www.FranklinStreetFW.com -- has attracted buyers from as far as California, and a 4-by-11-foot dining table soon will be trucked to the home of a Virginia client.

As for the two artisans, although each operated a South Tampa woodworking business, they met only after Johnson's wife read a newspaper story about Swann-Ingram and urged he visit her Howard Avenue shop.

Following their meeting, the two began collaborating on projects in 2003. In 2009 they merged their businesses and rented 1,200 square feet in a former West Tampa cigar factory, a space they outgrew in a year.

They scoured South Tampa for a building of ample size. "Because of the nature of what it is we do, we really needed something that would have artistic inspiration to it," Johnson said. "That eliminated 90 percent of the warehouses we were looking at," basic concrete-block or metal structures.

The search ultimately led to the long-vacant Vintage Auto Building erected in 1920 for the Traffic Trucks Sales Co. After 18 months of planning, architectural reviews and extensive renovations, in 2009 the building with high ceilings was fit for occupancy. In 2010 it was included on the National Register of Historic Places.

"It's worked out for us just great," Johnson said of the site two blocks from the Interstate 275 downtown entry/exit ramps, a 10-minute drive from his Hyde Park home and 12 minutes from Swann-Ingram's Palma Ceia residence.

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Johnson worked 25 years for the city of Tampa, retiring in late 2003 at age 48 as chief construction inspector.

His interest in woodworking was born when he was "a little kid" of 10 or 11. His dad was anything but handy with tools, and not a woodworking influence, but did provide his hand saw for his son's first project - basic boxes to hold some childhood possessions. "There's something about wood I just gravitated to," Johnson said. "The more I read and the more things I tried, the better I got."

Through the years Johnson honed his skills, built furniture for friends and family and studied with master craftsmen.

Swann-Ingram grew up in England, the daughter of a British Airways employee, a perk that facilitated globe trotting. She has worked around the world, as a shepherdess in southern France, a rock-climbing instructor in North Wales, an au pair in Switzerland and explorer in Chile, where she met her future husband, a U.S. Army Special Forces officer.

She studied furniture design and creation at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts while living in Portland. The well-travelled Brit landed in Tampa when her husband was recalled to active duty following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, assigned to U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base.

A piece by Johnson and Swann-Ingram was selected by the Furniture Society for exhibition at this week's International Contemporary Furniture Fair at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The selected piece, a cocktail cabinet, is part of the pair's new Winds of the Prairie line. The piece, made of American sycamore and wenge, a dark-brown African wood, features hand-burnt leaf designs and curved leg work.

The annual event draws more than 24,000 international interior designers, architects, retailers, designers, manufacturers, representatives, distributors and developers. "It's a real feather in our cap" to be selected, Swann-Ingram said.

Honors aside, Johnson said he loves what he refers to as his second career. "Alison and I work so well together; we've made a fabulous team," he said. "It's been a great experience, hopefully for both of us; I know it has been for me."

gwilkens@tampatrib.com

(813) 259-7124