Lewiston Art Festival: A 'dinosaur' of woodwork

Woodworking has long been a part of Fred Janik’s life, a strange choice since its one of the hardest artistic mediums.

“(Wood) is a bit more difficult than pottery or glass,” Janik described it. “You need a greater amount of machinery and capability.”

With his wife of 50 years Debra helping, Janik has created common functional items found around the house since 1977. His wood product line has kitchenware, breadboards, lazy susans, rolling pins, charcuterie boards, tables, vases, mirrors and other household decorations.

“I’ve always designed things as long as I could remember,” Janik said, who has graduate degrees in math and architecture and environmental design. His woodworking business, Designs by Janik, sells his creations at art festivals, like at this weekend's Lewiston Art Festival.

Most of Janik’s time for creating an item is spent in R&D, with some pieces in his sketchbook taking 20 to 30 years before they are finished. Coming up with a museum-quality piece he is happy with can take up to a year. Designs he has done before and can set up do not take a long time.

“Translating it to wood requires a tremendous amount of work,” Janik said, using joiners, planers, bandsaws, table saws and rolling pins to get his pieces right.

The designs come from Janik’s own mind, but he does hear what other people want him to create. He rarely makes custom pieces, only if it is something that intrigues him.

Janik uses local oak, maple, cherry and walnut wood along with exotic wood from Africa, Indonesia, South America, and Hawaii. He has a small shop for his work while his Lockport home is his office.

Festivals like these are the main way Janik sells his creations, since he does not have a storefront or an online presence. Getting close to age 80, they have limited how far they travel for festivals, going no further than Chicago and Washington D.C.

Back in the 1980s and '90s, the Janiks would travel the country doing different art shows three months out of the year. They were part of national art shows in Chicago, Florida, and San Francisco, with Janik acquiring the exotic wood from places with a deep water port selling them.

“We were vacationing in Hawaii and I got a tour bus to stop at a sawmill,” Janik said, to order koa wood found only on the big island, which he still uses. Along with local distributors, he has more than enough wood to last a lifetime.

Janik has displayed his creations at the Lewiston Art Festival ever since he started 45 years ago, one of the few local festivals he participates in. Sometimes his siblings help set up and tear down his stand for local festivals like this.

“The atmosphere and the people who run it are A+,” Janik said, calling it one of the better ones for them economic and people-wise. “I never had a bad issue there.”

Traveling to distant shows have taken their toll. At a recent show in Syracuse, the Janiks had to turn down a promotion offer because they are looking to downsize.

“I can count on less than one hand the number of people remaining from when we started,” Janik said, calling himself a dinosaur.

Still, his products have managed to last generations, with some customers from decades ago telling him their children are fighting over items he made for their inheritance.

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