Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301150073
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE
Inside the renovated Cambria train depot, 63-year-old James Dorsett spends hours turning wood into fine furniture.His thin hands work gracefully - every movement slow and deliberate - while the occasional roar of a train passing in front of his small shop keeps him company.
But these couches, chairs and dressers are not for people - they're for dolls. And although most collectors would pay hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for one of Dorsett's pieces, they are not for sale.
"The problem with building for collectors and museums is that you have to make more than one," Dorsett said with a laugh. "That takes all the fun out of it."
Although he has been making the furniture for almost 30 years, Dorsett said he has not sold a piece since 1976, when he and his wife, Helen, started their magazine, "The Scale Cabinetmaker," a how-to publication for modelers and collectors.
Since then, the quarterly magazine has expanded to more than 2,000 subscriptions worldwide, and Dorsett said producing it has become a full-time job since his wife died in 1990.
The Cambria Train Depot is Dorsett's building shop and publishing center. He begins producing the magazine by spending about 14 hours a day for at least two weeks creating a piece of furniture. Dorsett then draws the plans for the piece, photographs it, writes an instructional article to accompany it, and starts on the next design.
"Then I let someone else build the darn thing," he said.
Dorsett compares the publishing process to the myth of Sisyphus - an ancient Greek tale about a king who was forced to spend eternity rolling a large stone to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back down once it reached the peak.
"When you should feel great, you realize you have to start all over again with a blank piece of paper," Dorsett said. "That's when you realize why God rested on the seventh day."
Dorsett creates the furniture in exact detail, with moving pieces such as drawers that open and close and ceiling fans with moving blades.
He also creates them according to sociological and historical trends, and focuses on one of these styles for each magazine article. A recent one was about the furniture of the early 19th century Shaker religious sect.
"This magazine is as much social history as picking up a knife and cutting a piece of wood - or your thumb - whatever the case may be," he said.
Dorsett said he began making and selling the furniture in 1960 while working on his doctoral degree in Western American history at the University of Missouri.
"As with all graduate students, you're hungry," he said. "That was a way of paying the bills."
Dorsett said he and Helen, who also built model furniture, opened a modeling shop, Dorsett Collectibles.
In 1969, they moved to the Sinking Creek area of Giles County when Dorsett was asked to teach sociology at Virginia Tech. He said that was when he first considered starting the magazine.
Seven years later, Dorsett resigned from Tech to publish the magazine out of his home. He said he never knew the risk he was taking.
"Sometimes it's wise to have a pool of ignorance to draw upon," Dorsett said. "If I had been half bright, I would never have done it."
In 1983, Helen Dorsett wanted to buy and restore the old Cambria depot, which the town of Christiansburg was planning to tear down, and move their business out of their home in Giles County.
"I figured that Helen held my hand and jumped off a 60-story building when I started this magazine, so it was time for me to hold her hand and do the same," Dorsett said.
Dorsett said women are the main subscribers to his magazine.
"These are women like Helen," he said. "They wanted a saw and a hammer when they were young instead of Barbie Dolls."
The musty back room of Dorsett's shop shelters quite a bit of valuable model furniture; and although publishing the magazine barely pays the bills, Dorsett says he doesn't care about the money.
"It's a very selective readership - which of course translates to `too damn small,' " he said with a laugh. "But when you sell the furniture, you're selling reputations. I don't care about that. I'm a teacher."
In addition to publishing the magazine, Dorsett teaches occasional weeklong classes for "serious modelers" from across the country. The last class he taught, in early October, was attended by people from New York and Michigan, Canada and South Africa.
Subscriptions to the magazine are $22 a year. Anyone wanting information on the magazine or classes can call Dorsett Publications at 382-4651.