| Article as it
appeared in the October, 1987 issue of Better Homes & Gardens
Wood
Presenting the Guaranteed-For-A-Lifetime,
Texas-Size Rocker A dozen years ago, most people they knew in their Texas hometown of Woodville thought the Vaughns were a little "off their rockers." That's when Blow and Jennie chucked good, traditional jobs to make rocking chairs for a living. Now, looking back down a trail of sawdust, setbacks, and tired backs, they see their distinctively large, solidly built rockers sitting on some pretty prestigious porches.
In Texas, Bigger Has To Be Better Size sells in Texas, so Blow designed their rocker a third larger than the traditional. No one can say they "won't fit in it," Jennie laughs. Their solid ash, single, slat-bottomed rocker stands just over 4' tall, measures 3' deep and a little over 2' across. The 20"-square seat provides a comfortable rest for a wide bottom. The back slats span 25" to accommodate broad shoulders. Blow makes the rocker sturdy, too. The posts, cut from 3" square stock turned down to a 2 5/8" diameter, don't taper a fraction. Most rocker posts rarely exceed a 2" diameter. A Texas Rocker weighs in at 50 pounds and looks stout. Regardless of how big it is, the reputation of a rocking chair rests on its rockers. As Jennie points out, a rocking chair shouldn't pitch you over on your nose, take too much leg work to keep it rocking, or pull up short. Because Blow figured out the exact radius at which to cut their rockers, you can rest your feet up on the dowel rods and the chair keeps on rocking in a smooth, uninterrupted flow of motion guaranteed to last a lifetime. The Vaughn's Texas Rocker has withstood close inspection, and comparison, by customers. "Once at a crafts fair," Blow relates, "a tall-framed Texan was quizzing me about our rockers. He said that they're like the Kennedy rocker. I said, 'Well, kinda, but ours is a nicer chair. It has turned posts. It's also bigger.' At that, the man frowned and walked away. Well, about two hours later, here comes this guy carrying a rocker on his head! He sets down his rocker -- that he fetched from home -- next to mine and says, 'Well, I'll be, it really is bigger.' He bought a dozen." Chipping Away At Building A Business And A Reputation In the early days, Blow and Jennie viewed their market as just local residents and tourists who dropped by their shop at Woodville's only attraction -- Heritage Garden Village and the Pickett House. They called themselves the "Old East Texas Furniture Factory." After the first year, Blow and Jennie realized they couldn't make enough money from their tiny Woodville business to live on. So, they moved to Galveston, found "regular" jobs for a year to supplement their woodworking earnings, and made rocking chairs in the evenings. Something besides memories of the tough row they hoed came from their time on the Gulf Coast. That's when they came up with the present name for their chairs -- Texas Rockers -- and, discovered how to market them. "The Texas State Arts and Crafts Fair at Kerrville was our first show. We sold $1,700 worth of chairs at it -- ash rockers for $95 and cedar ones for $125 -- and were amazed! We also realized that we could move back to Woodville again, and run our business without depending just upon tourists," Jennie explains. Today, for three to seven days at a time, between April and Christmas, the Vaughns live out of suitcases. They haul trailers of chairs to about 30 arts and crafts events throughout the country. A Well-Placed Rocker Beats Paid Advertising Building good furniture doesn't do much except make you feel good inside unless you can keep on selling it. That's a sound business theory Blow lives by now. He's learned that advertising helps, and sometimes it's free. A real Texas-sized promoter of his Texas-size rockers, Blow once arranged to have a chair, with the state seal carved into the face of the top back, presented to the then governor of Texas, Mark White. When the governor's wife decided to sit down in her husband's lap, the room filled with camera flashes -- and Texas Rockers were page one. Front page newspaper coverage can't hurt. According to Jennie, however, it's word of mouth and satisfied customers that really sell their chairs. Usually, that happens one at a time, at a price beginning at $188. Occasionally, though, they hit the jackpot with a big buyer. Blow's favorite sale involved a rancher. "We were at a huge Texas show, and this guy came up and said, 'Give me 10 percent off each chair, and I'll take a dozen of them. Pick out your nicest 12,'" recalls Blow. He rounded them up. Two years later Blow and Jennie were at the show again. The same rancher came up to Blow and said: "You know those rockers I bought from you? The ones they replaced I gave to my foreman. Well, in order for me to get to my place, I gotta come across his, and I'm even tired of looking at my old rockers on his porch. I need four more to replace them!" Chairs Don't Make Themselves When You're Out On The Road Selling Blow and Jennie's original slat rocker has developed into a line. By customer demand, they now make dining chairs, a dining table, a double-seat rocker, footrests of single and double seaters, as well as upholstered versions. Customers choose between a dark walnut and a maple stain. A coat of sanding sealer, a hand-sanding with 150-grit paper, and a topcoat of the Vaughns' own acrylic lacquer makes a smooth, yet durable, satin finish for their products.
With six employees, they have work going on at every stage, from crosscutting lumber to applying the topcoat, and average about 1.2 chairs per person per day. In the assembly process, 35 pieces come together for each single rocker and 48 for each double. Each piece, except for the eight kiln-dried, ash dowel rods that connect the posts, come from their efforts. Practice, Precision, and Commercial Machinery Makes Perfect To avoid mistakes and save time, the Vaughns use jigs attached to the machinery as permanent fixtures, or templates which can be traced, for practically every piece that goes into their chairs. One of the bandsaw jigs, for example, swings into the path of the saw to guide the cut of the rocker. Another, on the vertical boring machine, controls depth. Fine-tuning production schedules or setting up jigs always takes trial-and-error experience. Moving from hobby machinery to industrial-type machines, though, was a major education process. Blow learned a lot from an experienced
woodworker in Louisiana. The man, nearing retirement and ready
to sell out his commercial shop, took the young entrepreneur under his
wing. On weekends, Blow drove three hours one way to "study"
with him. Only after Blow learned all about a particular machine
would his fatherly friend sell it to him. Since their first meeting,
they have shared a few machines and the experience of a lifetime. Today, posts are still cut, one at a time, on a Yates automatic turning lathe Blow bought from his mentor. The machine turns a 4'-long post in about four minutes. Unfortunately, instructions didn't come with the machines the Vaughns often bought at auctions. Blow, and his machinist friend, Charlie Youngblood, spent many hours working out a machine's individual quirks. For instance, there was the chain-driven, straight-line rip saw. After a professional had rewound the motor, one of the five gears mysteriously moved the lumber backward! Never Time For Rocking When You Make Your Own Chairs Blow and Jennie endured and matured during their trial-and-error stage of business. Yet, they don't plan to rest now that they're experienced. They may add a new product -- a "nanny" rocker. That's a baby cradle that rests on rockers and attaches to the arm of a full-size rocking chair. The "nanny" cradle will come off its rockers to be used elsewhere as a bassinet. Also, in the office, they're facing the challenge of computerizing the books. Blow and Jennie, like most folks, would like to work a little on working less. They're trying to refine the business so they can occasionally head home before dark. They look forward to someday enjoying the fruits of their labor -- and perhaps being able to put their feet up once in awhile and rock for a spell. |
Country singing star Willie Nelson owns one. So does George
Jones. And Janie Fricke, too. Celebrated movie producer
Michael Hausman bought one. Several Texas legislators relax in
rockers made by the Vaughns. And the city of Fort Worth bestows
them -- complete with the municipal seal carved in the back -- as gifts.
Production always must go on in the shop to make chairs to sell
at fairs. During the Galveston days, Blow and Jennie's nighttime
labors produced seven chairs a week. In Woodville, they broke
the 1,000-a-year marker in 1975, with the help of a few hired hands.