Story by Tiffany Olson

Photography by Ivy Clarke

We dig an opportunity get to know Maconites a little better by peeking in on their life and work. We combed the desk of Andrew Eck, president of local premium furniture company Georgia Artisan, to learn about his upcoming projects and what he can’t live without.

Describe one of your typical days.  

We’re a production facility, so I’m pretty rigid on the schedule: wake up, shower, coffee and then head to work and 8 a.m. is our start time. I’ve got to make sure all three of my smaller teams are ready to go, that they’ve got everything lined up to get things done. By 9 a.m. I might come back to the office and start on my own work.

The rest of the day I flip back and forth between working in production, training people or working on the computer doing sales. But sometimes I need to put on a pair of pants to go to a meeting downtown and then come back here to go to work. Rarely do I get to do all of one task throughout the day: building furniture, selling furniture, meeting with people and occasionally get food. 

What is your most reached for item?

Coffee! We have Z Beans Coffee here at the shop and at home, too; we’re big fans. 

What can you not live without?

Lexi, the office dog. My wife, Brooke, raised Lexi before she went to college, and she moved in with us last year. Lexi didn’t like being home all day, and Brooke had to go to school so I started bringing her to work and she really liked it. I’m pretty sure Lexi thinks she runs the company.

Any fun projects you are working on right now that you want to tell us about?

We’re building the tables for Lazy Susan, a new restaurant downtown. The owner wants some of the tables to be like a Murphy style bed, where it folds up against the wall, to give them more space. 

What do you think has most contributed to your success?

Probably being bone-headed enough to keep pushing things through until it works. But also being humble enough to realize when I’m wrong and need to change directions. Something that occasionally gets misconstrued when working for yourself or people think, “Oh easy hours; it’s fun.” And those are true sometimes. But there are also times where you just have a lot to get done and you just have to push through. 

What’s your favorite part about living in Macon?

How easy it is to get connected with people. It doesn’t take much to meet the right people to help with your idea. Everyone is on your side, and no one is trying to stab you in the back when you’re trying to get something done. When I was starting a different business, I met with a bunch of different people, and they would say, “Well I don’t know anything about furniture, but you should talk to this person.” And they’d set up a meeting for me. 

That’s the biggest value, I think. It’s so easy to get involved. If you’re not careful, you’re too involved! It’s never, “You’re not cool enough to be a part of us,” or whatever. 

If you love Macon, and live in Macon and want to do something in Macon, it’s, “Great you’re in! Here are the keys!”


Anything you can dream up out of metal or wood is what we can do. Every piece of furniture is made-to-order. Learn more at https://georgiaartisan.com.

In the Photo:

The bag is a Wowbox bag. My wife bought it for me as a birthday present when we were dating maybe three years ago. It’s funny cause normally I’m very rough on my stuff but it’s still holding up well. 

That’s a 30-page moleskin notebook. It holds all my to-dos and notes from meetings.

Z-Bean’s travel mug. I drink their coffee religiously. 

That’s a 1-inch screw that was probably in my pocket from a job, and yep, that’s a Torx drill bit.

Because I’m on the go, I pretty much have a mini office in my bag, that way I can hunker down in the cellar of Just Tap’d or at a conference room or just in my truck between meetings. So, I have my phone and Mac charger and a car charger.

I found it funny I had two square readers in my bag in two different pockets, but you never know when you need to take a payment! I thought it was funny that I have two different stacks of business cards, all the chargers and the two square readers – yet only one pen! I guess you can’t get everything right.