“Wow! Dem look nice! Weh it mek outta?” a motorist in a line of traffic traveling along Lady Musgrave Road on Wednesday asked Owen Clarke.

Clarke was holding one of the wooden folding chairs that he had brought to sell.

“Blue Mahoe,” he replied to the driver, who looked on in amazement before uttering, “Mi a go come back come buy one.”

But not long after he had driven off, they were all bought.

Clarke, 64, a carpenter by trade, explained that he had only brought six of the chairs to ‘test the waters’ as it was a design that he came up with without looking at any other models.

“Mi just have the idea, and mi just do a thing. Mi just picture a thing, and it work. Mi nuh look affa nothing. Mi buy di board ruff, clean up the board, and get what yu want outta it,” he explained.

Owen Clarke

However, with the positive feedback that he has been getting for his chairs, he says he plans to focus more on creating chairs than larger furniture.

“Mi mek bed, mi mek recliners, dressers and all a dem thing deh, but mi listen to a spirit and mi just decide fi work wid dem small thing yah weh mi can hustle offa,” Clarke told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Clarke said he would have to spend the next few days in his workshop before hitting the streets with more of his in-demand creations, which are priced at $4,000 each.

“It tek a good likle while cause mi no mek one; mi mek like a dozen at a time,” he said. And although he has been doing carpentry for almost 50 years, he was thankful for a profitable day.

“From mi left school, a it mi do cause a mi trade. A two thing, enuh, if yu nuh have a education, yu have trade suh if yu don’t have a big education, yu have to have a trade, to survive offa,” the father of two said with a wide smile.