“I hope others will enjoy the beauty in my boxes as much as I do,” he said. “Thanks to the Shakers for giving us these beautiful pieces of art more than 150 years ago.”
Kerns spends about 25 to 30 hours a week making shaker box sets at his home and sells them at his homemade shop down the street. The 200-square-foot rustic refurbished garage store sits back off the road at 237½ Main St. Kerns makes the boxes in sets of seven ranging in sizes numbered zero to eight. His largest box is 6 inches tall, about the size of a hat box. The boxes range $20 to $90 based on box size and set.
“The boxes are great for stacking or for storage,” Kerns said. “And the boxes fit into each other.”
He learned how to make the boxes by observing techniques during a visit to Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Ky.
To make them, he takes four pieces of cherry or maple wood and cuts the edges. He then steams and wraps the wood into shape. Then fastens the box with copper tacks and pegs to hold the ends together. He finishes with a hand-rubbed natural finish or Olde Century color paint.
Kerns has now made more than 200 boxes in what has become a family effort.
His wife, Angela, 58, helps run the shop, and his son, Andrew, 26, is a photographer who provides local photo art for the shop.
Aside from shaker boxes, he sells other American-made items, including colonial pottery from Williamsburg and Jamestown, Va., as well as Crossroads candles, colonial tin ware and lamps, and he hopes to soon sell Redwing pottery from Wisconsin.
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