I am pleased to announce that Molly Brown, one of John Brown’s daughters, will be creating many of the key illustrations in the upcoming book “The Life & Work of John Brown” by Christopher Williams.
Molly specializes in linocut illustrations, a process that is particularly well-suited to show off the graphic forms of Welsh stick chairs. Linocuts are similar to woodblock printing in that the image is drawn on a piece of linoleum and the background is carved away. Then the image is inked and pressed into the paper.
This week, Molly showed us one of her initial prints. Chris and I are very pleased.
Our plan is to have Molly provide the construction illustrations for the book. That might sound odd if you are used to reading CAD-generated drawings. But computer-created illustrations with precise measurements are the exact opposite of what John Brown liked, as he explained clearly in “Welsh Stick Chairs.”
John Brown thought every chair should be an individual, and we wanted the illustrations in this new book to reflect that.
In addition to the technical drawings, Molly will create spot illustrations that will be used throughout the book, such as tools and details of the chair. Recently, she visited Chris in his workshop in Wales to see his chairs, look over columns written by her father and get acquainted with the project.
Molly plans to show more of the process of making the prints for her book on her Instagram feed. You can follow her here if you’d like to watch the process. If you’d like to see some of her delightful non-chair prints, you can visit her website here.
Chris is working on a new chair design these days, and if you haven’t followed him on Instagram, remedy that here.
— Christopher Schwarz
That’s pretty damn cool. Great way to pass on the legacy to the next generation in a different, yet inspired form. Definitely a fine homage to him and a tip of the hat to his philosophy. Not to mention awesome work in her own right! Lots of skill there.
This is a fantastic public service announcement. Thanks.
I love this. The watercolor in Savage’s book, the stipple drawings in ADB, the print on the cover of Cut and Dried, the some many others. The unique, analog illustrations in the LAP books really excite me. It just brings the books to a whole different level. Everyone with a tripod and a smart phone can fill a book with in-process shots but illustrations like this are what makes the books worth having for a lifetime
I really like this idea and agree that CAD drawings of John’s work would be very odd.
One other thought – from time to time you post update blog articles letting us know how the projects in the pipeline are going. I would really appreciate it if a post like that could come out regularly (even once a quarter would be good) so I know what I will want to drool over.
Fantastic. I can’t wait to see this book.
Will this book be available in the U.K.? Still trying to find a ‘book mule’ brave enough to smuggle your Welsh Stick Chair version over here. Your US border control personnel have a ruthless reputation with highly trained sniffer bookworms and are heavily armed with double-barrelled shredders.
Yes. This book will definitely be available through all our distributors worldwide.