For the past 25 years, Don McKellar has made his livelihood from wood. So it’s only natural that his hobby would involve the natural resource as well.

Since 1979, McKellar has been producing wood products from his Sherman Mills factory, which was quiet on this recent day. At first, his Golden Ridge Fine Wood Products made wooden boxes and crates for industrial and military use. After the Gulf War, that business dried up, so he switched to crates, baskets and slide-cover boxes in which retailers would package their products. The company also supplies shreds, shrink-wrapped bags, ribbons and bows.

“Most of what we do are custom orders,” said McKellar, 56. “We can’t compete [wholesale] with the Chinese. There’s no way you can get a price you can live with.”

But McKellar makes another product that those who frequent craft shows are familiar with – a colorful child’s block box seat. He got into making the sturdy item, which he has been doing for nine years, quite by accident.

“I was doing a country line, and had some extra wood around,” he recalled. “My wife suggested I decorate some of them up and take them to a craft show.”

Since then McKellar, now a member of the United Maine Craftsmen, has been a regular at large craft shows in Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut. He has also enjoyed repeat business, such as a dentist in Boston, who ordered more of the seats since children were fighting over the ones that he had in his waiting room.

McKellar’s box seats are built with vibrant scenes on two sides, and letters on the two sides with the rope handles. The lid also has letters on it.

His pre-built seats have set pairs of scenes on them. But the seats can also be custom ordered, with the customer’s choice of scenes, letters and background colors.

“I’ve seen people at shows line them up and keep turning them around, because they can’t decide,” McKellar said with a smile. “I got into the custom work because I had so many requests.”

The seats are made of white pine from the Old Town Lumber Co. He selects the best material for them from the wood delivered to his factory. Each takes six different applications of sanding, one application of stain, two to three applications of paint and four coats of finish.

The sides are butt-jointed together. They’re glued, then nailed, with an angled brace added in each corner for extra stability.

“I have to make sure I don’t get the lids mixed up, because they won’t fit on every box,” he said.

McKellar also builds three sizes of peg racks, offered at shows as well. His wife, Candace, an artist and art teacher, creates hand-painted slide-cover boxes and lamps.

The father of two adult sons and grandfather of one boy, McKellar works on the box seats during his factory’s slow periods. Since he works on each seat piecemeal, he’s never really totaled the number of hours it takes, but he estimated 21/2-3 hours each. Still, because there’s so many steps, it can take two weeks for him to complete a custom piece.

The number of seats McKellar produces fluctuates depending on the economy and the number of shows he’s able to attend. He doesn’t have as much stock as normal this year, because he has been ill.

McKellar doesn’t plan to add more items, because he doesn’t want to hire and train others to make the seats.

“We’re not going to make a living doing this, not with the time involved,” he said. “We both just enjoy doing this.”

For more information or to order the boxes, call Don McKellar at 365-4264 or fax 365-4401.