We’ve just replenished the printed sets of full-size paper patterns of all the important components for the five chairs in “The Stick Chair Book.” (They are also available as PDF downloads.) The five 22″ x 34″ sheets contain full-scale drawings of all the seats, arms, backrests, shoes and combs for the chairs. The drawings also…
Read moreAlmost every time I post a photo of one of my chair seats in progress, I get this question: “Do you use an angle grinder and (insert spinning tooling name here) to rough out your seats?” I answer: “No, I use a scorp.” But I don’t really talk about why. I think this sort of…
Read moreI have one important piece of advice when I teach our authors to take photos, junior editors to design book pages or students to design chairs. Here it is: Never trust your first instinct. Force yourself to take another photo from a different angle. Make an alternative page layout. Try a different arrangement of sticks….
Read moreDuring the last two decades I’ve entered the orbit of many chairmakers who make Jennie Chairs (from “Make a Chair From a Tree”) and Windsor/Forest chairs. Years ago, I was in a gaggle of them, and they started talking about how little their chairs weighed. I learned that Jennie Chairs that have been stripped down…
Read moreAs a woodworker, sometimes I ask too much of the wood. Instead of just putting a cushion on a chair, I’ll do everything possible to force the wood to be as comfortable as possible. Naked. With no help from anything cloth, leather, foam, feathery or furry. So, I have spent years (almost two decades) learning…
Read more