The wor begins in western Pennsylvania, but it's seen all over the world.

I have pieces in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, London.

These men are masters at what they do designing furniture.

You originally made this for Japanese ambassador to the United States?

Yes.

Crafting sculpture.

And this is one of my favorite sculptors.

It's close to ten foot hig and creating fine collectibles.

This is a delicate little piece.

Many hours of carving color on the inside.

From the lumber yard to the lathe will take you inside.

There's studios and showrooms.

And what will you do with this table?

Table?

It takes a special talent to blend art and nature, and you'll see what inspires these woodworkers of western Pennsylvania.

Ron Layport didn't set ou to be a successful wood artist.

It just happened that way.

I just wanted to make sure what I had no urge whatsoever to be known, but known.

He is around the world, from the South Pacific to Europe.

Late ports made a name for himself, creating sculptured wooden vessels.

I have pieces in Hong Kong Australia, New Zealand, London.

Makes me feel good an I'm honored and humbled by that.

Actually humbled that American museums have also embraced his work.

Museums like the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

and the Carnegie Museum of Art here in Pittsburgh.

Probably the one I'm mos thrilled about is the Carnegie.

They own two pieces in thei permanent collection of my work.

The intricacy is what people admire.

And that, of course, takes great skill.

That's a daily challenge fo Layport, who for the most part taught himself how to carve and sculpt.

Since I wa a kid, I could make you anything from a car to a house out of an orange crate.

So I have worked with wood al my life in one way or another.

And ever since he can remember, he's also had a fascination with animals.

I wanted to be a zoologist.

When I was ten years old.

I wanted to work with animal and look what's happened to me.

I work with them.

They're here in my arms every day.

This is a delicate little piece.

Many hours of carving color on the inside.

Of white.

On white.

All sculptural piece that almost looks like ivory or scrimshaw.

My work celebrates the connection with the creature with whom we share this planet.

Hey, look at what's around here.

Look at the beauty around you.

And am connected to the creatures.

But I find the grace in them.

And that's what I try and portray.

But Layport didn't originally start out making these wooden works of art.

His full time job was in the high pressure world of advertising, and for fun and relaxation he made and designed furniture.

In the early 1980s, I bega to make all one of a kind pieces for me, for no one else's eyes to see, but just for my enjoyment.

And eventually it became published in Fine Woodworking magazine, and it was seen, and all of a sudden I found myself crossing over into commission work.

It was becoming a business as it became more successful.

I wanted to learn to make round legs for my furniture.

I had to learn how to use a lathe to do that.

The lathe opened up a whole new world of creativity, rather than just round legs for my furniture.

There was unlimited access to self-expression.

I started thinking in terms of bowls to go along with my furniture.

But that soon developed into exploring the vessel form entirely.

Open bowls, closed bowl forms, hollow forms.

It was unlimited, and I turned my concentration to the vessel form.

Layport retired from advertising in the year 2000, but he wasn't concerned about what he would do in the next phase of his life.

At the point I started to make vessels, I knew I had found that.

Now the so called retire is working up to 60 hours a week sculpting vessels in the studio of his home in Mount Lebanon.

Surprisingly, each work is from just one chunk of wood.

They're all one piece.

That's part of the challenge.

It's quite different than the constructive process of furniture, where you're putting many pieces together to make one piece.

This is creating the illusio of many pieces out of one piece.

The wood he uses doesn't come from the lumber yard.

The dark striations in this vessel came from a tree that had been struck by lightning.

I know this because I was there when it happened.

It was a huge maple tree.

I literally boiled the fluids of the tree, causing the gray stripes.

And I decided to, leave that as part of the overall effect of the dappled light of the forest.

I don't go cutting trees down.

The wood I work with is on its way to the fire pile or the mulch machine.

So I look at the work I do a giving second life to that tree.

Look at these burls.

Layport favor hardwoods like cherry and maple, but he also finds perfectio in imperfection by using burl.

Abnormal growths sometimes found on trees.

They're clusters of buds which would become limbs.

However, when cut and polished.

They're quite beautiful.

Here's an example of of a burl vessel.

Bole.

Close Bole with a lid with ebony trim, but all those buds become quite lovely.

Whatever the choice of wood.

Once it's selected, the process begins.

It's labor intensive work that starts with crafting the wood into a form on the lathe.

Every piece begins directly with the log.

The log goes to the lathe.

I need the form to be pure.

Hey.

Here we go.

The form is not pure, and it's not worth investing the time to carve it.

Those forms dry over a period of a year, maybe 3 or 4 months.

And once it's dry, Layport decides on a design for his soon to be vessel.

The design process is done right in my living room.

Over a period of several days.

I have to know where I'm headed before I begin cutting.

Because once you cut away wood, it's gone.

As for his choice of tools, that depends on the look he's trying to achieve.

For detailed work like this, Layport is usin a small rotary cutter cutting, and the sculpting can extend for weeks.

Sometimes I miss, and it sits there for months.

Sometimes it just doesn't get finished.

But for the most part, I'd say in the last ten years I have completed 120 pieces.

I have four week invested in carving this piece.

Before that, a week and turning and design.

I should finish the carving tomorrow or the next day.

Then I begin color finishing.

And what began as a 100 pound log will weigh only about 2 pounds when thi vessel finally goes on display, perhaps in a museum or someone's home.

It's exhilarating.

After all that effort to put it out there in the gallery environment, get a response.

It's truly an hono when someone decides to add one of my works to their collection completes the entire circle, a circle of woodworking that evolved from a furniture making hobby into a fruitful business.

I would like to continue for another ten years.

I want to keep finding that freshness.

That that willingness to explore, to take the risk.

And if I can continue to work in the material that I love to wor in, I'm as fortunate as anyone I know.

His designs are works of art, but Tadao Arimoto doesn't consider himself an artist.

Are you an artist?

Well, no.

I'm a craftsman.

Craftsman?

Just because I make things for other people.

For people near and far across the Pittsburgh region his pieces can be seen in homes.

And businesses.

And in garden landscapes.

They can even be spotted in places of higher learning.

Arimoto is also making a name for himself outside western Pennsylvania, in Huntington, West Virginia, near the Kentucky border.

He built these ston and wooden benches for a park.

And this coffee table he handcrafted for a Japanese diplomat.

You originally made this for Japanese ambassador to the United States?

Yes.

For him and his wife?

Yes.

For their home in Washington.

Yes.

And what did they say?

That they like it.

Kiredesune.

What does it mean?

Beautiful.

So we learned a new word.

Or a new word in Japanese.

It's Arimotos native language.

This is Douglas fir.

And this was a willow.

And, And this handle here is, driftwood from, Lake Erie.

The Japanese influence is evident in almost all of Tadaos American made designs.

And the circle completes from beginning to the end, the same place so often used in Zen Buddhism drawings.

Nara, Japan, is where Arimoto w born, but he grew up in Kyoto.

In the early 1970s, he met his wife, Diane, who was a pit student.

She actually went to Japan to study textile.

I was going to, one school International Design Institute.

So, I met her.

I was, first one to talk to her in Japanese and In Japanese.

Yes.

Everybody else try the English from Japan.

The couple eventually made their way to the U.S., moving to Pittsburgh, where they started a family.

In 1977, Arimoto found a jo teaching furniture construction at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild and Bidwell Training Center on Pittsburgh's North Side.

He worked there for 11 years before opening a business i a nearby warehouse and studio.

And ever since then, he's been turning out tables, benches, chairs, stands, doors and other specialty items.

So I don't have any form of traditional Japanese woodworking training.

I work through the club and, and I talk to Toolmakers, and then whenever I have the opportunity, I try to pick up knowledge from other people.

Bill Strickland is head of th Manchester Bidwell Corporation.

He commissioned Arimoto to make a table and other pieces for his organization.

So I found this beautiful slabs of walnut walnut four pieces.

So I was going to use it for my own piece.

Then as I was coming into the gate, Bill saw me.

He looked at the board, who said, make a conference table with this.

So I said okay.

Today, the 16ft walnut tabl remains one of Arimotos favorit What's the piece you're most proud of?

Video conference table.

Because it's just been used so much.

And that's what Arimoto would like to see happen to all of his work.

I make a functional object.

What does that mean?

That's something you can use in everyday life to support your life.

It's why Arimoto welcomes input from clients on their furniture needs.

So the difference between me buying a chair and a table and you doing those pieces for me here.

If I make one say chair for you, you are involved in a process.

I'm involved in a process, including history of materials and where it came from.

Nice.

Generous.

Two and a quarter.

Arimoto uses stone, iron, glass, and a variety of wood, including maple, walnu and cherry to craft his pieces.

Some of it he gets from Michigan and Ohio, but most of it comes from the Pennsylvania Woodlands.

This is an amazing place in western Pennsylvania and in terms of trees and a lot of them.

Some are very big, some beautiful.

One of his favorite places to find wood is just outsid Greensburg, Westmoreland County, in a lumber yard owned by artist and fellow furniture maker Reed Crosby.

Very unusual color.

It takes an experienced ey to spot the right piece of wood.

Look at that mating surface.

That's beautiful.

And after it's been chosen.

The wood is loaded onto a forklift and brought back to Pittsburgh and Arimotos truck, where it could take up to five years to dry.

After more than 20 years in business, though, Arimoto has hundreds of pieces of wood in his warehouse ready to be transformed into furniture.

This is like a slab from a big time tree, and it goes all the way up.

Is that about, what, nine, ten feet?

Yeah, ten feet long And what will you do with this?

Making table.

Table.

Dining room table.

Dining room table.

The first step in the building process is to remove any excess outer wood.

Then it gives it texture.

You can do many different kind the sanding, cutting, using chisels, using other tools to creat different texture and designs.

Some are Arimoto's.

Tools originate from Japan and date back centuries.

This tool produces a wavy effect.

It produces texture tha resembles ripples on the water, so it'll cut.

Like this.

Once the design is finished and the legs are stands are attached, a finishing coat is applied.

Some people want some plastic type of finish, so it will last, you know, a long time.

And this some people allowed me to use oil based finish that will age.

Completion of a piece of furniture could take several weeks.

Dinin table might take about a month.

Of course I do other job at the same time, but the chair I could build in a few days if I know the design but if I don't have to design it again, might take about two months.

I want to see the studio.

Most of Arimoto furniture is custom ordered, but a few pieces may make their way to his showroom.

This is a large dining room table.

And these grooves?

Yes.

These are natural.

Yes.

Now some furniture manufacturers may cover that up, but you leave the natural embedding for its character.

Yes.

Yes.

So show its history and time.

And Arimoto is using his time as a craftsman to continue learnin and improving upon his designs.

Your goal is to get better.

Yes.

I like to feel better personally.

Every day is a discovery.

It's always something new and I learn things from what I do, and that's what I would like to do.

When you walk into the studio of Thaddeus Mosley, be prepared.

You'll see wooden sculptures everywhere.

Each one different from the next.

Mosley is one of the most productive wood artists in western Pennsylvania and his studio on Pittsburgh's North Side is a great place to see samples of his work.

But it's not just his studio.

His home in the Mexican War streets is also a showroom of sorts.

It's filled with his own sculptures and things he's gathered over the years, like photographs taken by Teenie Harris, the legendary photographer with whom Mosley once worked at the Pittsburgh Courier in the 1950s.

Mosley is a bit of a collector, but collectors also seek him out, hoping to buy his creations.

Surprisingly, he prefers only an occasional sell to help pay for expenses.

This is one of my favorite sculptures.

It was a challenging piece to get to balance on the top, and it's black long.

It's close to ten foot high and I guess it turned out fairly well.

So well that it was featured on a 1997 poster promoting Mosley's one man show at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

He still exhibits his work, and at age 86, he shows no sign of stopping.

Art is his life and his passion.

And his name is well known in the artistic circles around the region and beyond.

His pieces are on permanent display at the August Wilson Center and the David L Lawrence Conventio Center in downtown Pittsburgh.

But as prolific as he is, Mosley doesn't necessarily consider himself a successful African-American artist.

I say I'm not a way to make jokes.

Success is a relative word.

I've never considered myself self a successful artist anywhere.

I could just consider myself a successful person in the sense that I mean, I'm happy with myself, and I'm happy that I'm able to do what I do at my age.

But financially, no.

There's n very little financial success.

Mosley didn' start sculpting for the money, and he didn't begin until he was almost 30.

Even though as a child growing up in Newcastle, Pennsylvania he was always attracted to art.

Well, I drew, like, all kids, you know, but there wasn't much arts and art didn't mean much.

But Mosley's love for the visual arts never really went away, and it resurfaced during his college years.

When I went to Pit, I had a friend and we'd always go and see the connection.

And then in the very early 50s, the Scandinavian design and furniture hit America, and I was taken by the furniture and they also had sculpture.

So I decided I could make those.

That's how I really got started making sculpture for myself.

And I guess I'm still making it for myself.

Oddly enough, Mosley doesn't rely on a pre-planned design to craft his pieces.

Instead, he uses a somewhat improvizational approach.

The most of my pieces are made from logs, so you're still mor or less confined to circular or either slice and that some way where it's semi flat.

I carve many logs, so sometime just the shape of the log itself will give you an idea for a sculpture.

You can find pretty much within parameters of the raw material.

Those materials are usually hardwoods like walnut and cherry.

So there's a lot of sawmills around and they cut wood for furniture, make room for flooring for people like me.

It takes years for fresh cut wood to dry, but mostly has also learned t carve it while it's still green, letting the wood dry later.

Either way, it's hard work that can only be done by someone in good shape.

Yeah I don't go to doctors much, so, to zig.

It's like when you take your car and to your dealer, they're buyin something wrong with it, right?

It's, No, I think activity and injuries are a big part of anyone's life.

Mosley's interest lies in African tribal art, but space and balance are another eye catching element of his creations.

The idea of the lac of floating space, that thing.

How does the piece look?

Surrounded by air.

That, to me, is what sculpture is about.

And that's what influences my my ideas.

These two sculpture have the basic same structure.

You'll see two vertical support plus a horizontal support with three, ups, straight up element and the same way on this side.

But the shapes are different.

Naturally, because I try to d different things at all times.

Some o these things are pretty heavy.

Yet to have a center of gravity so that they'll stand up, you cannot, but something on the, 45, 90 degree angle, unless it's really anchored pretty much into the floor.

So most of my things, they may extend to the top, but that's the lightness.

The heavy part of the sculpture is straight down the center of gravity.

Weight and balance are importan elements of Mosley's work, but so are the gouge or chisel marks carved into each sculpture.

Anywhere that there's gouge marks on mass carved it directly, and it creates a tension.

It creates a rhythm.

Rhythms have a lot to do with every sculpture.

It creates a different visual feeling.

A feeling he only gets with the unmistakabl look and texture of wood color.

The warmth of the wood.

It's organic material.

Wherever you cut, there's a lasting impression.

And and and it's just beautiful wood.

And it's also an everlasting source of inspiration for woodworkers of western Pennsylvania.

These artists have gotten and given much pleasure through every one of their creations.

Peace of wood.

It does give me a lot of, inspiration.

I hope that my peace gets better with time.

Have found joy in my life doing what I do.

I celebrate every day.

I want each piece of work to be the best I can make it.

It's what I do.

It's what I love to do.

And the inspiration is really?

How well can I do it?