Get two classic chairmaking books – “Welsh Stick Chairs” and “Good Work” – for one special price. Together, they’re just $ 49 – but only through August 7. The regular price for both is $87 – you save 44 percent. If you’re wondering where stick chairs came from, these two books will tell you the…
Read moreThe following is an excerpt from “Welsh Stick Chairs” by John Brown. “Life without Industry is guilt, and Industry without Art is brutality” I came back to live in Wales in 1975. I had been made redundant and I was depressed. After years in a job I loved I had been told to go; my…
Read moreI love books, photos and drawings, but if you want to quickly learn a lot about making and designing chairs, there is one path: Study the suckers in person every chance you get. Up close and slowly. Last week, Welsh chairmaker Chris Williams arranged for me and some friends to study four old stick chairs…
Read moreEarlier this month a John Brown chair surfaced at auction that was a highly unusual form: a comb-back rocking chair. Commissioned in 1988, the chair was made for a family with a newborn and served as a nursing chair. From the seat up to the comb, the chair resembles JB’s cardigan chair, the chair he…
Read moreBetween 1995 and 2001, chairmaker John Brown and Drew Langsner carried on extensive correspondence about JB’s classes at Country Workshops. In addition to discussing flights and fees, the two men wrote a lot about how they viewed the craft and the world today. During our research for “Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown,”…
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