Behind a white, late-18th-century farmhouse on Snavely Mill Road sits a pine barn overlooking the countryside.

Inside, Tom Feeser of Hammercreek Studio quietly and conscientiously goes about his business.

Feeser isn't your typical artist, showcasing his pieces in galleries or at craft fairs. His anonymous handiwork, however, is in homes and sacred settings spread far and wide.

The Elizabeth Township resident decorates pipe organs, an occupation he shares with few others. At this pursuit since the early 1980s, Feeser has just finished his newest project: painting the pipes of a 19th-century organ from St. Lawrence Chapel in Harrisburg.

An uncommon career
Feeser also decorates buildings, cars, boats and furniture, but it's the organs that set him apart.

He said he knows of only two other people in this country who paint organ pipes. "It's a pretty rare profession."

All told, he's painted up to 25 sets of pipes, Feeser said.

The St. Lawrence Chapel organ, which is in St. Patrick's Cathedral, dates from 1885 and was manufactured by A.B. Felgemaker in Erie, he said. It was moved to the chapel some time in the 20th century, Feeser said, and the pipes lost their decoration in the process.

By removing the subsequent layers of paint, Feeser was able to find the original stencil patterns and color scheme, which he set about reproducing as authentically as possible.

While Feeser is handling the painting, Raymond Brunner, of R.J. Brunner & Co., Silver Spring, is rebuilding the organ.

They've been partners on projects several times before. "Tom is very meticulous," Brunner said, and always produces high-quality work.

Pipe-organ decorating was popular in the Victorian era from the early 1860s to the 1890s, Brunner said. "There was a lot of elaborate decoration during that period," he said.

Feeser also added 16 more painted pipes to the St. Lawrence organ, for a total of 56. Some are speaking pipes, which produce sound, while others are facade or "dummy" pipes, he said.

The hand-soldered pipes come in a wide range of lengths, with the largest measuring more than 13 feet.

Most of the pipes he's decorated are from Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran or Methodist churches, Feeser said, but about 30 percent are owned by individuals. And those are scattered throughout the U.S., he said.

A 1972 graduate of the former York Academy of Arts, Feeser was the first owner of what later became Zap & Co. on North Queen Street, which he sold in the mid-1970s.

He then began specializing in decorating, working on restaurants, bars and clubs, and doing "more historic things," he said. Feeser even once decorated a train car and the nose of an airplane.

After completing stencil research and color matching on the St. Lawrence Chapel organ, Feeser began chemical stripping of the pipes in late July. He also spent a month removing the dents accumulated over many decades.

"I need a good canvas to work on," he said.

The painting itself started in the fall.

Feeser said he's the only organ-pipe decorator who uses automotive paints. "This is not just your run-of-the-mill art studio," he said. "I do a lot of experimentation."

Originally, he relied on casein paints, but the milk-based product tended to separate and bubble, Feeser said. Then he tried oil-based alkyd paints, but they were slow-drying and sticky, he said.

Auto paints are the best because they're more controllable and are impervious to pretty much anything, including cleaning agents, Feeser said.

With the St. Lawrence organ pipes, he began with a primer and a bonding coat, after which he used polyester putty filler to cover up the remaining small dents.

"I keep trying to get it right," he said.

Since these pipes will be viewed from dozens of feet away, the final product "needs to be really crisp," Feeser said. "It has to have that 'jump' factor."

Then he sanded over the putty and sprayed a second coat of primer.

Feeser gently sanded the second coat and applied the first base coat, a light beige. "The gold lays nicely over that," he said.

Then it was time for measurements. He stood the pipes next to each other, mimicking their arrangement in the chapel, and marked off the rows with automotive tape where the final colors would be applied. Feeser said he has to make sure patterns across the pipe rows ascend or descend properly.

Next he resumed painting, doing hot pink and light green, which ended the background colors.

Then he removed the tape and applied dark green, dark red and finally the gold. Last were the 18 stencil patterns, which Feeser sprayed on the pipes, also using auto paint.

The final task involved erasing any pencil guidelines, or doing touch-up repairs if the paint bled.

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Paula Wolf is a staff writer for the Sunday News. She can be reached by e-mail at pwolf@lnpnews.com.