Priscilla Richardson

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Yes, Virginia, there really is one of Santa's workshops, and it's located in Fincastle -- in an 18th-century log cabin that fittingly shelters a furniture maker who works in 18th-century styles. When you go in, you see woodworking tools such as planes and saws, and lots of boards of varying lengths and sizes stacked about the room. The only thing missing? Elves. Because Jake Cress works there.

You likely know about Cress, a creator of handmade 18th-century-style wood furniture. You have probably heard about Cress' national fame for "Oops," one of his fantasy furniture pieces, which resides in the Smithsonian Gallery.

This lovely Chippendale-style side chair with ball-and-claw feet grasps the air for one of its balls with an empty claw. But the ball is rolling away, out of the claw's reach. "Oops."

Less well-known is his Hickory Dickory Clock, a grandfather clock trying to use its pendulum bob to whack a mouse running down the case. One of the clock's feet is, at the same time, attempting unsuccessfully to catch a mouse on the floor.

But if you visit the Cress shop, on Roanoke Street right across from St. Mark's Episcopal, or if you go to JakeCress.com, you will see more examples of his work.

There is the furniture that anyone in love with the period styles he uses will covet. Then there are other imaginative pieces. One that I, all thumbs, relate to, is the small table with one leg way too short. That leg rests on a book--a book on how to make furniture. Plus he creates child-sized chairs and tables. And boxes, lovely wooden boxes in various kinds of wood.

Phebe Cress alerted me to the latest Jake Cress invention, a major work called "The Decorator." Very much in the 18th-century "trompe l'oeil," or fool-the-eye style, it melds furniture and painting.

Blue Ridge's Mark Young, 56, an artist who moved here about eight years ago, painted the portrait of rooms full of Cress-style furniture. One armchair, toward the front of the scene, is reaching out of the painting with an actual wooden arm. It's held on with bolts that go through to the back of the painting. The arm grasps a blue hyacinth from a vase on a table created by Cress. When you get up close, you notice the chair's beady eyes set in the carved back. But the chair's mouth seems to smile in enjoyment as the chairs are decorating the rooms with flowers tossed all around. And they're using books about flowers as decorative elements as well as for instruction.

"The Decorator" is being kept in Young's studio, not open to the public, but you can get a fine idea of it from the artists' Web sites, including MarkYoung.com.

The work of Young and Cress exhibits a similar sensibility, a similar approach, although each uses a different medium. How, you have to wonder, did they ever get together?

Young tells what he calls the "two-minute version" of the story.

"I went to my aunt's funeral in Knoxville, Tennessee. Family was there, I went to the wake, a cousin asked me, 'Do you know Jake Cress?' I said, 'I don't know him, but I know his work. I think he's a genius.' My cousin hit speed dial on his cellphone and said, 'I have a guy here, and he thinks you're a genius.' And put the phone to my face. Turned out my cousin was an old friend of Jake, so we talked, we had dinner, and he showed me his concept."

That concept turned into "The Decorator." Right now Young and Cress are looking for a buyer who will display the piece for the public.

So here's another example of the talent we have here in Botetourt. Cress, the father of four grown children, is a feature of Fincastle life. He always opens his home during Fincastle tours. Now we all have yet another reason to appreciate his work. So when you see him, you can say, "Hi, Genius." Although, "Hello, Mr. Cress" will do just as well.