Take a visit to Arts and Crafts

  • Published
  • By Nick DeCicco
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  A military installation may be the last place one would expect to find someone who ardently devotes her free time to the Berlin Wall. 

Rebuilding the iconic Cold War barrier is of great importance to Erika La Tour Eiffel. She even carries around photographs of graffiti-splattered sections of the wall on her BlackBerry. 

Such a fixation doesn't seem as unusual when considering Mrs. La Tour Eiffel is a scale modeler who plies her craft in the wood shop of Travis' Arts and Crafts Center. 

And all joking aside, she's clear about her political feelings on the subject. 

"I'm in love with the Berlin Wall, not for its purpose, but for its architecture," she said. "It helps pass the time during rehab [for my back]." 

Mrs. La Tour Eiffel, an archer who qualified for the 2008 Olympics but had to bow out due to a back injury, has spent hours at the shop crafting models of the wall at varying stages. Her works range from the first generation in 1962 to its final evolution in 1975. 

But rebuilding the Berlin Wall, albeit on a small scale, isn't the only sort of woodwork being done at the Travis' Arts and Crafts Center. 

The construction of shadowboxes occupies most of shop director, Ron Reeves' time, especially during the busy season from March through September. A shadowbox is a small, wooden creation containing remembrances from a servicemember's career. 

"That is sort of the meat and potatoes of this place, the flag box and the shadowboxes," Mr. Reeves said. 

Though shadowboxes, flag boxes, coin racks and awards boards - such as the one fashioned for the medical group - are what keep the wood shop going. 

For the ambitious woodworker, Arts and Crafts Center Director, Wilfred "V" Vigil points to their do-it-yourself hours. 

After completing the safety training, for $3 an hour, Team Travis members can use the facilities to craft his or her own project. The shop's do-it-yourself hours are from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays. 

"We're here for the servicemembers to make arts and crafts," Mr. Reeves said. "We [make shadowboxes] to pay the bills." 

While selling shadowboxes may keep the lights on, Mr. Reeves said one of the shop's biggest hurdles is awareness. 

"I'd venture to say, over the course of the season, we lose $10,000 in sales because GIs here on base do not know we're here," Mr. Reeves said. 

In terms of building shadowboxes, everything begins in the wood shop with Mr. Reeves. He will spend the next few months cutting and preparing boards for starter kits for next year's busy shadowbox season. 

"It's all the components, but they're not sanded and finished. They're only cut," he said.
Mr. Reeves takes care of a shadowbox's wood and glass portions before sending it to the framing shop, where the assembling of its contents is done. The final stage is the engraving stage, where a label is put on the box. 

A new production in 2007 was a stripe box for upper enlisted personnel. These "more unique, labor-intensive" boxes are available to master sergeants, senior master sergeants and chief master sergeants, Mr. Reeves said. 

"This past year, we did fantastic business," he said. "We could not keep them in stock."
The cost for a regular, square shadowbox is between $85 and $125, depending upon the size. The striped shadowboxes are $190 for master sergeants, $200 for senior master sergeants and $210 for chief master sergeants. 

"It's a lot of fun to put these together because it matters to people," Mr. Reeves said. "We have a joke here. We say that sometimes, you know, the shadowboxes will wind up in their garage. They may sit out there for a while until people start reminiscing about it, and they bring it back in the house, dust it off and find a place for it. We're quite proud of what we do here." 

Mrs. La Tour Eiffel shares that sense of pride and accomplishment in her works fashioned in the shop. Her models are an example of what military members and their families could do at the shop. 

"When models are done, they don't look that hard, like they took that much work," she said. "But I've been working daily for months in this shop. It's been a pretty diligent process." 

Other areas of the center include the aforementioned engraving and framing shops, as well as the auto and embroidering shops. 

All are open Mondays through Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with two exceptions. One is the auto shop, which also is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Another is the wood shop, which is closed Mondays. 

The Arts and Crafts Center is located at the corner of First Street and Suisun Avenue, Bldg. 226. For more information, call 424-2929.