Most people look at a heap of limbs and branches and see a pile of brush. Mike Minning sees possibilities.

A straight, strong branch becomes the framework for a bench. A crotched limb becomes the spindles for its back.

“The trick is the material,” Minning said. “I let the curve or shape of the wood determine the piece. There’s no measuring. That’s how I keep it natural.”

Natural is what friends, neighbors and those who pass by Minning’s Marion Township home like about Mike’s Creations, rustic furniture that’s more artistic than functional.

“It’s so different,” said Dawne Storie, a neighbor who has two of Minning’s benches in her backyard. “It’s not stuff that you buy at the store and put together. It has character and distinction. I don’t think any two pieces are the same.”

Minning, a project engineer for seating at Plymouth’s Johnson Controls, fell in love with woodworking at age 13 when his mother got him a workbench and a jigsaw and he made a wall-mounted gun rack.

“Whenever a chainsaw goes off in the neighborhood, everyone knows it’s me,” he said.

Minning can make fine finished pieces. He’s made a poker table with hinged legs and a detailed box for tying and carrying fishing flies, but it’s the rustic stuff - benches, tables, chairs and arbors - that keeps his imagination flowing.

“We were cutting down trees and the neighbors were trimming trees and I saw all these beautiful limbs and thought something should be done with them,” he said. “I started putting ends together and this is what I came up with.”

Minning prefers red pine for his rustic garden furniture.

“I like the color, and it’s fairly straight and it varies in diameter,” he said. “I can really make just about anything out of it.”

Minning coats every piece with polyurethane so it can withstand the weather. Every part of his creations, including the one-inch dowels that hold the parts together, is made from twigs and branches.

“They add to the natural look of your yard,” Storie said. “They’re good conversation pieces. Everyone who sees mine wants one.”

Minning and his wife, Rhonda, have lived in Marion Township for six years. They have two children, Morgan, 6, and Kyle, 3. He credits a lot of his success in furniture making to his neighbors’ enthusiasm for his pieces.

“It’s really nice that they like it,” he said. “I never expected it would take off like this.”

Minning sells benches and chairs for $50 to $70 and end tables for $20.

“If someone wanted something bigger, like a rustic bed frame or a rocker, I’d do that, too,” he said. “If you’ve got an idea, I’d love to take a crack at it.”

While most of his projects come from branches and limbs, Minning hasn’t ruled out including other parts of the tree.

“I’ve got a big old oak stump and I think my next big project will be to make a rustic poker table out of it,” he said. “I’m a go-go kind of person. I’m not the kind to sit down and do nothing.”

To find out more about Mike’s Creations, call Minning at 517-540-0250 or e-mail theminningfamily@charter.net.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 28th, 2006 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Furniture, Garden Furniture. Tags: Arts, Color, Friends, Furniture, Garden, Goes, Kyle, Mike, Project, Table, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.