NORTH TULSA OKLAHOMA
THE UPHOLSTERY CLASS @ TULSA TECH
INTERVIEW: Roberta Clardy
The soundtrack to 2021 for Joyce Smith-Williams and Margaret Love, so far, has included whirring industrial sewing machines and pounding mallets. The two accomplished quilt artists expanded their talents, building amazing "footstools" in instructor Grant Griffin's Upholstery class at TULSA TECH. And, spoiler alert, they'll be rescuing two chairs in his June course.
"It was a truly wonderful experience," Margaret Love told us. Everyone in the class (6 students) finished their projects. Joyce Smith-Williams downplayed the process saying "We have a tendency be...like Ethel and Lucy." Their completed beautiful furniture proves otherwise. Two ideas prompted the friends, both retired Social Workers, to start the 3 week, 12 hour (4 hours per day) course. According to Margaret, keeping "your mind busy...doing something you enjoy" is essential. Part of "the motivating factor" for Joyce was to learn to "do some of the work that we can't pay anybody" to do. "Living in a house that's over 100 years old," Smith-Williams pointed out, for her, that list is always growing.
Photos Courtesy of Joyce Smith-Williams. Top left: At work/Joyce Smith-Williams. Top right: Smith-Williams' completed footstool. Bottom left: Margaret Love's completed footstool. Bottom right: Margaret Love upholstering footstool in TULSA TECH workroom.
The decisions are already made to return for the next level 8-week course in June at TULSA TECH. Williams-Smith will tackle upholstering a chair that Love sold to her. Love will take on an antique chair. For the footstool "we actually went to JoANN's and bought the fabric." Everything else was supplied by TULSA TECH. Keep in mind, they built their footstools. Next? "Maybe carpentry class."
