By Dustin Brown
The Astoria Boulevard woodshop run by Konstaninos Pilarinos provides a humble home for a sacred trade.
Behind the modest storefront, an uneven red-and-white tile floor is covered by a film of sawdust that looks like a layer of skin shed by the wood carvings dotting the room.
But the slabs of wood shaped under Pilarinos’ guidance at Byzantion Woodworking are destined for a much higher calling — furnishing the interiors of Greek Orthodox churches around the country.
Pilarinos, 61, opened his woodshop at 37-20 Astoria Blvd. in 1976, two years after moving to Astoria from his native Greece.
If the shoddy floors obscure the sanctity of the woodshop’s mission, the walls and scrapbooks give it away, telling the story of an artisan’s lengthy career that stretches back to Greece butis now bringing him international renown as a resident of Astoria.
Among the awards hanging in the small office at the back of the shop is a year-old letter from then-President Bill Clinton, congratulating him for his designation as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Meanwhile, his wife Vasiliki flips enthusiastically through the Lonely Planet tourist guide to New York, which lists his shop along with the Steinway & Sons piano factory as a noteworthy artisan site to visit.
Pilarinos began learning his craft at age 13 at what he described as an orphan school in Greece because he had been looking “to learn something,” he said.
His interest was piqued when an elder brother showed him a table that had been crafted by students at another orphan school.
“He shows me the table and says, ‘You like?’” Pilarinos recalled.
“I say, ‘I like.’
“‘You like to learn to make this?’
“‘Yeah, I like.’”
After five years of study he opened his own shop in Greece at age 19, but under mentors shifted his focus to the Byzantine style of woodcarving — predominantly found in Greek Orthodox churches.
“The style was more interesting, more appealing than any other style,” said George Douramanis, a family friend who translated for Pilarinos.
It also lent an air of immortality to his work since pieces crafted for churches often remain on display for hundreds of years.
After moving to Astoria in 1974, Pilarinos split his time between running a coffee shop with his brother and pursuing his craft in a nearby garage.
But when a fire destroyed part of St. Demetrius Church in Astoria, he offered his services to replace the damaged materials.
“I worked for nothing,” he said. “After that, it was very easy” to find more jobs, Pilarinos said.
After 27 years in Astoria, he has furnished 65 churches in their entirety and has built pieces for another 150.
He now has assistance from his daughter, Penny, an architect who designs many of the church pieces he ultimately fashions himself.
Family and friends are constantly stopping by the shop to visit, chatting with Pilarinos as he pursues his sacred craft. The day after Christmas, he played host to four friends and family members while pressing his chisel into a mahogany slab destined to serve as the bottom panel of an icon screen he was carving for St. Mark’s Church in Florida.
“When I was small, I never really appreciated it because I never knew what they meant,” his second daughter, Antonia Pilarinos, said while visiting the shop.
But with age she has come to appreciate her father’s craft. Although she has practically grown up in the woodshop, she is hardly immune to the powers of his creations.
“Sometimes you see a piece that he makes, and you still say, ‘Wow! How did he do that?’”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
