They sat in their boat-cover shop off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Buford, a cluttered, dimly lit, out-of-the-way space, sort of the way you’d imagine the bicycle shop where Orville and Wilbur Wright built the first powered aircraft more than 100 years ago.

Joni and Daymon Johnstone had been invited to be a part of a display on aviation history, and now they wanted to talk about it.

Until now, the Johnstones hadn’t given much thought to that historic flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Then, back in March, the Tellus: Northwest Georgia Science Museum of Cartersville came calling.

The museum was building a replica of the Wright Flyer and needed someone to make the wing covering.

Daymon Johnstone hesitated at first. He knew his way around a construction site and for nearly 20 years had been in the business of making boat canvases.

He was just 6 when he started helping his father on construction jobs, hauling material. By age 9, he was swinging a hammer. Anything that got his creative juices flowing, he loved. Whatever he could see in his mind’s eye, he could bring it to life.

But by the time his father, Merrill, was in his mid-50s, Daymon could see the physical toll the construction business was taking on his dad. As much as he loved the business, he worried about whether he could do it for the long haul.

He was building roof trusses when he decided to quit, then turned down a construction job at a local grocery store chain in favor of a part-time job at Lakeside Marine Canvas.

He was making half what the grocery chain offered, but it didn’t matter. He decided it would be easier to sit behind a sewing machine than to swing a hammer.

Johnstone bought Lakeside three years later and has been here ever since, providing boat covers, custom marine canvases and metal fabrications to the Atlanta area since 1993.

Max Samples had heard about Johnstone’s work. He was considered one of the best when it came to making custom canvas.

When officials at Tellus asked Samples if he knew someone who could make a cover for their replica, he told them Johnstone was the man for the job.

Johnstone wasn’t as sure. The sheer magnitude of the project was mind-boggling —- not to mention the amount of research it would take to get it right, he said.

Samples, though, was persistent. A couple of weeks later, he called Johnstone and asked him to reconsider.

Johnstone, 46 and the father of two, called the museum for more information. He drove to Augusta to take a look at a replica at the science museum there. He logged onto the Internet for more information.

In June, he announced to his wife, Joni, and their children, Abby and Morgan, that the family was going on vacation —- destination Kitty Hawk. He wanted to see the $2 million replica there.

They spent two days crawling around and under the aircraft, taking hundreds of close-up photographs of the stitching in the cover, noting how each panel was sewn, where the tacks were placed and how the guide wires were connected.

They read diaries of other organizations that had made replicas.

Johnstone decided that, yes, he could make the covering for Tellus. Now all he had to do was call in the experts.

His mother, Cynthia Johnstone, and her twin sister, Cassandra Williams, were nationally known quilt artists. If anyone could sew into his vision, they could.

They arrived in April about the same time the frames arrived in Buford at the Old Lovable Bra Factory, Lakeside Canvas’ home, and began the tedious job of attaching the fabric.

The twins, along with the Johnstones and their son and daughter, worked around the clock, copying the stitching in the photos the family had taken.

Two months later, on June 18, they were done.

The detail in their work was amazing, said Brock Cooney, a member of the education program staff at Tellus.

“It’s a beautiful replica,” he said.

Today marks the 105th anniversary of that first powered flight by the Wright brothers, Joni Johnstone noted.

“It had to be exciting for them,” she said. “We feel a similar excitement today, having followed in their footsteps for this little while.”

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