Thomas E. Stimson explains how to electroplate nonmetallic objects.
Electroplating Non-Metallic Objects (original article)
Here is a short picture story how wood tennis rackets used to be made. Manufacturing tennis rackets took a lot of skilled hand labor. Old wood rackets are now collector items but you can still buy new wood tennis rackets.
How Wood Tennis Rackets Were Made
http://www.woodtennis.com/newWood/newWood.html