According to Pete, his secret doesn’t lie in focusing on the future, but instead on taking a look back at the past. He does this by finding old materials, revitalizing them, and crafting them into totally new, one-of- a-kind pieces. After saying he was fortunate enough to turn his passion into his profession, Pete credited his upbringing for laying down the foundation of his success. “My father taught me everything. He was an engineer and a carpenter and, from the time I could walk or knew what my name was, he’d pop me up on his workbench with him,” said Pete. “I watched him and absorbed everything he did; he taught me how to swing a hammer, use a combination square, and not curse like a sailor when you inevitably hurt yourself.” Pete could have never known, when he was a boy, that his roots would one day give him wings and allow him to take the plunge and open his own furniture business. For years, Pete lived in Nashville and was able to work with companies that had a variety of celebrity clientele. This allowed him to start building a reputation and a brand. Once more and more people became aware of the quality pieces he produced, his business began to take off. Although his business was expanding in Nashville, Pete’s wife Camille, who was his fiancé at the time, was from Madison, Mississippi, and had a lot of family here. “Nashville was going great for me but Camille and I wanted to be closer to family and since she has such deep roots in the area, it made sense to move. We had lots of friends in Nashville, but we didn’t have family,” said Pete. “We moved here, got married, and now I’ve been working on building up a new clientele, here.” Although his business has ebbed and flowed throughout the years – wading through new cities, new clientele, and new opportunities – his craft has only grown. Because everything Pete crafts is made to order and completely customized, he makes an effort not to hold inventory to ensure consistently unique pieces. “I work with companies that go into old homes and deconstruct them nail for nail and board for board and that’s where I get a lot of my materials,” said Pete. “I want to use material that has a story and has lived a life for 100-200 years and give it a whole new life. The materials I work with have an old soul, and that’s kind of how the name came about.” One such example of this came five months ago when he built a sliding barn door for a client. He heard that the home of Thomas Stockdale, who was a Mississippi Confederate officer during The Civil War, was going to be torn down and sold for scrap in Summit, Miss. Pete was able to travel to the home, which was marked as a historic landmark, before deconstruction started, and walk through the property. According to Pete, just walking through it felt like an old piece of history. “It was amazing to see these old wall boards and old pieces that you just can’t find replicated in homes today,” said Pete. “I was able to take those old boards and make them into my client’s sliding door. When I presented them with the final piece, I printed off the history of the home and gave that to them as well.” While that experience was memorable for Pete, another client that has stuck out to him over the years was Big Machine Records. Big Machine Records, which is the label for dozens of chart-topping country artists, contracted Pete to build a large chandelier for their CMA after-party. This chandelier was crafted completely out of steel and was a whopping 7 feet by 7 feet. “That project was totally nerve-wracking for me because here I was making this massive, heavy, light fixture that would be hung 20 feet in the air over the heads of some of the most famous country artists in the world,” said Pete. “I was a nervous wreck, completely, but it turned out great.” These days, Pete works out of his shop on their property, alongside Camille, who graduated from Ole Miss with a marketing degree and handles all the marketing and promotion for Old Soul Art Co. According to Pete, she is the important piece of the puzzle who helps him stay focused and keep his head on straight. In addition to Pete and Camille, Old Soul Art Co is comprised of their three rescue dogs, which he calls his children and also his supervisors. Both Pete and Camille are huge advocates for rescue and adoption and are passionate about providing “furever” homes to animals in shelters. In fact, they are working to make a portion of client purchases available as a donation to local animal shelters. Just last week, he and Camille moved his father, who is now in his 80s, here from New Jersey. “My father and I have always been close, so having him here now in the shop with me is nostalgic and great,” said Pete. “He is the man that taught me what I know in this profession—and in life. Although he doesn’t build much anymore on his own, he’s a part of Old Soul Art Co. He’s another example of how something in the past can birth a whole new life, which he has done for me; now, I’m able to do that for others.” ___________________________________ To learn more about Old Soul Art Co, visit www.oldsoulartco.com 60 • November 2018
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