— SINCE 1982 —
Gary graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. After working in New York City as a chef, Gary and his wife moved to the hills of Virginia. There weren’t many restaurants there so Gary found a job working for a fine furniture maker. Gary worked in the sanding department for six months and decided that he could do this on his own. With just a chain saw and a few hand tools he went into the woods to look for twigs and branches that looked like parts of chairs that he wanted to make. After making the chairs he entered them in the crafts division of the art show in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA. The chairs took first prize!
Gary started his business by going to antique stores and asking for refinishing work. Some chairs needed new caned seats, so he went to a friend and learned how to weave seats with reed and cane. Gary also took carving lessons.
He kept up his business of refinishing furniture and fixing chairs for restaurants. One of his clients asked him to make some furniture. His customer was pleased. He then went on to make cabinets.
Eventually he dropped the furniture part of his business and he focused on making cabinets, bookcase units and kitchens. His cabinets required custom mouldings. Gary was outsourcing the mouldings. They were an expensive part of the cabinets so Gary decided to buy a small moulding machine and make them himself. That’s when he decided to go into the moulding business. He invested in a larger shop and larger equipment, came out with a catalog of unique mouldings and advertised. It worked well.
Gary got his appreciation for mouldings when he was a young boy. When he went into New York City with his parents, his mother would always point out the mouldings on the buildings. Now, when Gary brings his children and grandchildren into New York City he points out the mouldings to them, but he can also point out buildings that have his mouldings in them. Some are the Plaza Hotel, The museum of Natural history, The Dakota, The Eldorado, The New Yankee Stadium, and many more buildings that don’t have names.
Recently we have shipped as far as Japan, California, Canada and Puerto Rico. Even though SAW Mouldings have gone into famous buildings and large estates, Gary always appreciates the customer from Kingston that brings in a piece of moulding that they need to match for their old house.
Gary now works in his office and runs the every day operations. He has an excellent office staff and designers. The foremen in the shop take great care to make sure everything that leaves the shop is of the highest quality. Don’t worry about Gary getting too old, we are proud to announce that his son Emmet has just had his 10-year anniversary with SAW Moulding.
Gary and Emmet would like to thank all the exceptional architects and builders that have chosen his mouldings to be in their buildings and houses over the last 40 years.
Thank you very much,
Gary and Emmet Spiegel
“Moulding Men”
— SINCE 1982 —