Woodbury's Own Americana

Woodbury resident James Redway has deep roots in New England.

“My family came here in 1637,” explained Redway. The family originally hailed from Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Eventually relatives migrated south and Redway himself has lived in Woodbury all his life.

In 1983, Redway was working as a marine research biologist when he found himself victim to company budget cuts. Suddenly, he was unemployed and in search of a new way to make money.

After a series of unsuccessful business attempts, including a videography venture and trivia book, Redway took a job working as a finisher in his friend’s cabinet shop.

“I always had an interest in making furniture,” Redway said.

The budding furniture maker spent his time at the cabinet shop learning about 18^th and 19^th century furniture. Inspired by a 1790 Breakfast Table design, table crafting was especially what Redway began gravitating toward.

Then in 1986 Redway crafted what he called the Christmas Table. First he made four and a couple more and before he knew it, the tables were selling like hotcakes. The tables were on the small side, just under two feet tall, but Redway soon found the size was just what people were looking for.

“We sold twenty of them right away,” said Redway. “My wife Liza and I thought, ‘maybe we have something here.'” He left the cabinet shop and decided to try his hand at running his own furniture business.

And Redway knew just what caliber of furniture he wanted to make. He admired the solid craftsmanship of furniture made in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds and made that a key element in his new business.

“Some of the best furniture was made in New England and it was made out of cherry,” he explained. When Redway made his first Christmas Table he crafted it out of American Black Cherry and used 18^th century tools and techniques, such as the traditional mortise and tenon joinery construction, which he continues to use to this day.

The combination of the hard cherry wood and the traditional construction techniques are what make Redway’s tables so unique and long lasting.

“We make things so they last for generations. The techniques we use make our stuff last for years," he said.

Cherry is not only strong, but it beautifies over time so that with each passing day the way it looks improves even more.

“It has a beautiful closed grain,” he added. 

Cherry wood polishes quickly and, he said, you get a nice smooth finish. The hardwood is also photosensitive so it builds up a nice patina relatively soon in its aging process. 

“If you expose cherry to a lot of sun it gets darker faster,” he explained.

The Redways' business has grown exponentially since the first crafting of the Christmas Table and they have added dining and Queen Anne Tea tables, mirrors, and cutting boards, to the repertoire just to name a few. A large part of their business is custom requests, especially for people who have a certain space they’d like to fill with a locally handcrafted addition.

Not a lot of goods are made in this country these days and the Redways pride themselves on crafting American made quality products with care.  

Many of the products that the Redways sell at their store, The Silver Cherry, and in their furniture showroom, can be viewed and purchased online. Store hours are Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment.  Shoppers are invited to call the showroom’s toll free number anytime.