Ramsy Uter has been working with wood since the age of 12.

LIVERMORE FALLS – A Jamaican furniture artist is practicing his craft and sharing his natural ability with Americans.

Ramsy Uter started doing woodwork when he was 12 in his native land. He “captured” the art of making furniture and honed his hand-carving talent under the guidance of an older brother.

Now 36, Uter learned to build and design furniture that has a language of its own.

He made most of the furniture in his house, including an exquisite hand-carved bed that gives the message of “One Love” on the footboard and headboard.

A crown is carved in the wood under the words with flowers and other intricate carvings enhancing its beauty.

He built it for his wife, Donelle.

“My wife explained what she wanted and I designed it off the top of my head,” he said.

When he was done, he said, it was more than she expected.

The crown means “your woman is a queen in your life,” he said.

Uter came to the United States in 1996 as part of an agricultural program to pick apples at a Turner farm. He met his future wife and the couple married soon after. They have five children.

When he moved to the United States, he looked around to buy furniture. All he could see, he said, was particleboard furniture.

Having had his own furniture shop in Jamaica, he didn’t find what he was looking for.

“In Jamaica, they like the high-quality furniture,” he said. “If they want a bed, they want it full of detail by their choice.”

Uter has the natural ability to listen to what a person wants and then design it in his head before setting it to a pattern on cardboard.

He has photo albums depicting the furniture he had made in Jamaica. In one album, it shows furniture rich with detail including a table for a lawyer’s house.

Others show a bedroom set with a large millennium angel with her trumpet raised carved in the wood.

He uses hand-carving chisels to shape his art in select woods: mahogany, cedar and cherry. He especially likes to work in cherry because of its smooth grain.

In an elaborate entertainment center, 7-foot high by 7.6-feet long with hand turned dowels, he made for his wife for Christmas, he used different woods for contrast and strength: oak, cherry and birch.

In his basement, some of Uter’s patterns hang on the wall.

He took the patterns down to show how he uses the template to draw it on the wood in pencil before he would start carving it. He cuts some of the bigger holes with a jigsaw then does the carving.

His bed took him two weeks to make. “When I say two weeks, it’s 80 to 100 hours a week,” he said. “If I didn’t enjoy it, I couldn’t do it. It is very patient. To satisfy the people I got to make sure it’s fully detailed, which takes time.”

Uter wants to share with others his talent of making furniture, including bedroom sets, china closets, desks and cabinets.

“I really want American people to have some really good stuff,” Uter said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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