Custom work keeps artisans in demand
Memphis Business Journal - October 13, 2006 by John Scruggs 
Artisans and custom craftsmen continue to play an important role in construction projects, renovations and numerous other jobs requiring old world skills and painstaking attention to detail. 
Memphis has a strong artisan community with specialists in a range of fields from glass work to plaster casting 
Dan Spector knows his capitals. And contractors often come calling when they reach the tops of columns on commercial and residential renovation projects. 
"They don't know what they are," says Spector, owner of Archicast, "Ionic, Corinthian or others." 
But Spector does and he's quick to point out examples of his work in his Broad Avenue workshop. 
Archicast specializes in high-quality sculpting, mold making and casting, and his work is featured, or hidden in some cases, in buildings throughout Downtown. 
Spector has worked on Brinkley Plaza, the Exchange Building and the Kress Building among others. 
He says more and more people are taking restoration and authenticity seriously in Memphis and that commitment has been good for business. 
"It's everywhere now," he says. "When I started in '84 my wife said, 'You're starting what?'" *
But the industrial design graduate from Rhode Island School of Design has found a steady flow of custom work in Memphis on varied projects. 
"I've done work for Metro Construction and other companies on projects here in Memphis," Spector says. "There are a lot of companies who will come to you once for a particular project, and you won't hear from them again." 
Crafting molds for fiberglass reinforced plaster and concrete takes time and patience, but more often than not, the molds will never be used again, he says. 
"There was a pilaster cap I did for a house on West Cherry, and now a guy in Toronto wants some," he says. 

In Memphis, the community refers people or contractors to others who may specialize in woodworking, sculpture, glass or metal for certain jobs, he says. 
"If we know someone who is passing off work that is bogus, that doesn't stay quiet for very long," he says. "And a lot of us find each other working on different aspects of the same project from time to time." 
Spector was scheduled to start work on the renovation of the Rhodes-Jenning building in Downtown Memphis, but the project will likely be delayed or more involved because of an Oct. 6 fire in the building. 
"I've done work on a lot of the buildings Downtown with all of the redevelopment going on there," he says. "And a lot of them don't have names." 
Perfection in his craft is the ideal, but even Spector says many artisans sacrifice some degree of quality to get the job done at times. 
"We're perfectionists who work fast," he says. "You have to be to make a living." 
Glass worker Cindy Sharpe, who owns Carved Designs in Cooper-Young, is confident that old world skills and techniques will continue to thrive in the coming years. 
"It's always going to be around," she says. "I just hired a student, so I suppose I'm passing along what I know." 
Sharpe says business, especially in renovations of older Cooper-Young homes, has been good. 
"Midtown seems to be the center of the artisan community in Memphis," she says. "And people who are buying up these houses want to fix them up and replace the little windows on either side of the fireplaces. They want the original look back."
* There was no wife. Writer invented her!

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