Mon, Dec 24, 2007 page11

• FEATURE: Toymakers flooded with orders

  OUT OF HAND Toymakers in Vermont said Christmas customers wary of buying Chinese products are making this a record year, and it's wearing them out

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Ron Voake has spent the last few months in a blur of wood, wagons and widgets, trying to keep up with demand for the toys he makes in his home here.

  Voake, the owner of Vermont Wooden Toys, has been deluged with orders from Christmas customers leery of buying toys made in China after millions of toys manufactured there were recalled this year because they contained lead paint.

  "Every time there was a story about a toy recall, I got flooded with orders," Voake said. "This year stacks up as preposterous. I've never had a year like this, and I hope I don't have another one."

  

  Ron Voake, owner of Vermont Wooden Toys, is pictured in his toymaking workshop in Norwich, Vermont, last month.

  PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE

  Makers of wooden toys say they can barely keep up with consumer demand and are hiring extra employees.

  "A lot of people are just generally concerned with the whole lead paint issue, the recall issue, the safety issue, all of that," said Mike Rainville, the owner of Maple Landmark Woodcraft in Middlebury, Vermont. "We're used to a Christmas rush, but not for three months and not to the level that it's been. We're all tired."

  Rainville said that he and his holiday staff of 45 were working 16-hour days and that toy orders had increased about 60 percent this quarter.

  Voake said he had made more toys this season than at any other time in his 34 years in the industry.

  With so many orders coming in, some of the toys will not be ready until March.

  "There's so much -- too much -- business," he said. "I can only make so many things."

  Voake, 61, who works alone in a basement shop with a springer spaniel named Snifflefarg, never thought there would be such a clamor for his products, which include arks, doll carriages, blocks, trains and other toys made from hard maple.

  All his wood is bought from lumber dealers in Massachusetts and Maine, and he finishes his products with linseed oil and a nontoxic stain.

  Voake started woodworking in the early 1970s, when he and his wife were teachers living in southern California.

  He had little experience -- he took wood shop in junior high school, but he ended up having to wear a mask because he was allergic to sawdust.

  He started making toys for his wife's classroom anyway. When the couple moved east in 1973, Voake's wife took another teaching job, and he decided to make toys full-time.

  "I wanted to see if I could get away with doing it because I liked doing it," Voake said. "Vermont was the right place. There was a hangover from the '60s, a lot of the back-to-the-earth stuff."

  Voake said the crisp Vermont air also cured his sawdust allergy and that he no longer needs to wear a mask.

  He first sold his wares at the Vermont State Craft Center and later branched out to take orders over the phone and online.

  Over the years, he also taught himself how to produce more complicated pieces by experimenting with equipment and materials and adding details.

  Voake said one of his biggest helps were his three sounding boards -- his daughters, who are now in their 20s and were never shy about telling Voake which toys worked and which did not.

  Business has not always been great, and there have been a few bumps -- like when Voake sliced off the top part of his right middle finger with a saw.

  Voake said he thought the reasons he had been able to make toys for so long were that he truly enjoyed it and that not many products looked like his.

  "I don't make anything that can be manufactured," he said. "It has a different look that you can't get by slapping things together."

  Voake is tired of making blocks, however, saying they are a "mental challenge" that occasionally leaves him "dozing off," but are most popular with customers. He prefers to make large intricate items like rocking horses.

  Standing in his workshop, which is decorated with decades-old pictures of toys and princesses drawn by his daughters, Voake wiped a nontoxic finish off a doll carriage as Snifflefarg vied for his attention.

  Apart from the few orders that will not be shipped until March, nearly all the Christmas orders have shipped, and Voake is putting the finishing touches on toys for some local residents. He has absolutely no inventory this year, because things are bought as soon as they are made.

  Even though Voake will make more money than usual this year because of the flood of orders, he said he was eager to return to his measured pace.

  "It's really just a hobby that got out of hand," he said.
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