Lost Art Press

This week we have two pieces we are selling to readers: a Welsh-style stick chair I made last month, plus a gorgeous walnut shelving unit that journeyer Kale Vogt made for a pottery show. These items are being sold separately via a random drawing. Complete information on buying the items is below.

First, a little about the objects.

Elm & Ash Stick Chair by Christopher Schwarz

I recently completed this chair while teaching a class in Wisconsin. It is the seven-stick comb-back I’ve been refining for about five years now. This one is set up for all-purpose seating, either for dining, keyboarding or sitting by the fire.

Like many old Welsh chairs, this one has an elm seat, arm and comb. The legs, sticks and stretchers are made from some nice olive ash. All the joints are assembled with animal glue (for repairs in the far-off future) and ash wedges (to keep the joints tight). The chair is finished with a coat of the soft wax we make here. It is non-toxic and easy to repair should it ever become scuffed.

Design-wise, this chair has a lot of Welsh features, including the negative space between the short sticks and the long, the hand-cut lamb’s tongue detail on the ends of the shoe and the gently rounded comb. I have left the short sticks a little proud (1mm) and burnished them with bone, which gives the arms some nice texture.

The seat is lightly saddled (about 3/8″ deep) and is 16-3/4″ from the floor – a good all-purpose height for vernacular chairs. It sits well, with just a little bit of lumbar support and nice thoracic support.

The chair is $1,900, and that price includes crating it and shipping it to anywhere in the lower 48.

Walnut Shelf Unit by Kale Vogt

If you follow the ‘Anarchist’s Apprentice’ Substack then you’re well aware of this shelf. On Substack I wrote about the design and build process of this shelf, and now here on the Lost Art Press blog, I’m putting it up for grabs.

This wall shelf was initially built for my friend who is a ceramicist. Months ago, said friend reached out to see if I’d be interested in building an original piece for his upcoming ceramic show that could display his handmade mugs. I jumped at the opportunity.

The ceramic show has since come and gone (it was a big success!), and now here my shelf sits, alone, ready for its new home. If this sort of thing speaks to you, read on for specs and details about the shelf.

For starters, the shelf is made entirely from a walnut tree that fell on my family’s land in Eastern Kentucky. It’s adhered together using traditional through-tenon and key joinery. No glue or fasteners are used on the piece (Except for the screws used to attach the French cleat to the back.)

The inner shelves are egg-carton jointed and rest snugly inside the outer frame. And the rabbeted back panel is held in place by grooves on the upper and lower frame shelves. Each cubby hole measures 5-1/2″ W x 4-3/8″ D x 5-1/2″ H. The shelf as a whole measures 19-3/4″ x 8-1/2″ (at the widest portion of the side panel) x 32-1/2″. And as mentioned before, it comes ready to hang with a cleat attached to the back. The piece is finished with a coat of soft wax.

If I had an appropriate spot for this shelf in my kitchen, I’d be keeping it for myself. It’s sturdy, bold and walnut. Did I note earlier that it’s made from walnut?

I’m asking $675 for the shelf, that price includes crating and shipping to anywhere in the lower 48. 

How to Purchase One of These Pieces

We are selling these pieces via a random drawing. If you want to purchase one of them, send an email to [email protected] before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday, Oct. 15. If you want to buy the stick chair, please use the subject line “stick chair.” And if you want to buy the shelving unit, use the subject line “shelving unit.” In your email, please include:

• Your first and last name
• Your mailing address
• Your daytime phone number (this is for the shipping quote only. No one will call).

If your name is selected, we’ll send you an email and arrange delivery. As mentioned above the price includes all packing and shipping charges.

It’s been years since my last needlepoint project (a belt for a boyfriend … who was an ex-boyfriend before the belt was done), and I wasn’t very good then. I’m worse now – but just competent enough to sew a patch onto a hat. In the video below, I tacked the corners down…but I recommend, after sewing on a second patch at home, that you instead use four pins to keep the patch in place as you stitch the edges. That means just a little less sewing.

Oh – and I also recommend having pliers at the ready – especially if you have even a touch of the ol’ arthritis. The patch material is stiff and thick, and the hat is thick at the seams thanks to the cotton reinforcement tape. The pliers make it a lot easier to pull the needle through.