Jay Montepare

I have been building custom furniture for the last 7 years. My grandfather was a machinist repairman and in charge of building bridges in the Army Corps of Engineers and had a construction and painting company, my father restores antiques. I grew up working with them every weekend. But in furniture building, I am self-taught. I was in the entertainment industry in LA where I was a standup comedian and television personality for 20 years. I was always building something, but I switched full-time into woodworking after I hosted a television show about furniture design. I relocated to Napa from LA last year and set up a shop on my property. I heard about The Krenov School through reading Krenov’s books. His philosophies on woodworking fell in line with mine, and I came here to up my game. I love woodworking. I really feel at home in it and I want to be great at it. I want to be able to make museum-quality pieces. Learning on my own, there was a limit on what I could do. Being part of this community will help me get to the next level, and I’m really excited to be here.