Lost Art Press

Things That Make my Heart Stop

Posted on by Lost Art Press

This week we received a beautiful batch of photos for Christopher Williams’s upcoming book “The Life & Work of John Brown.” When I reviewed the final photo, my heart skipped a beat or two.

It’s a picture of Chris’s chairs headed up by the last chair John Brown reportedly made in 2002

This photo shows the whole history of the relationship between Chris and John Brown, in wood, form and finish. When you read the book, you’ll understand the entire tale. But until then, I hope you like this photo, which is by Heather Birnie.

— Christopher Schwarz

20 thoughts on “Things That Make my Heart Stop”

  1. Kudos to Heather — that’s a fantastic photograph.

    This might be my favourite Brown chair (excepting the scalloped crest rail). The pieces (and the whole) have an appealing lightness, and I love the number of spindles in the back.

  4. Anybody else imagining a production of West Side Story set in a chair factory? Those could play the sharks, maybe a bunch of Windsor jets…

  6. Hello,  Please see the note below and change my email address in your system, if you can. Many thanks and Happy New Year! DEAR ALL, PLEASE NOTE: I hope to complete switching to gmail by January 1st, 2017. My new address is: p.mclaughlin1122@gmail.comPlease add that to your contact list or address book, and DELETE this old sbc email address.Thank you and best wishes,Peter

  7. NIIIICCCE!
    I now know that I want 5 back spindles and 3 arm spindles on my chairs. Thank you, John, Chris, and Heather.

    1. I have always though that the chairs with an even number of back spindles felt/sat better as there was not a spindle right in the middle that pressed on my spine.

  8. Excellent photograph, beautifully lit, gorgeous chairs! It would make a nice poster…

  11. Beautiful photo Chris. At some point, I want to make chairs for my kitchen and I like this design. Currently we are using some sort of mid price range chairs (and table) my wife bought off the internet.

    One day, I turned to fill my glass from the water cooler and I guess the leg of the chair torqued a bit then broke off sending me onto the floor. My 7 year old daughter thought it was hilarious. I was angry. It wasn’t like I had abused the chair in the process.

    It wasn’t cheap furniture but it wasn’t expensive either. I figure after a set of 6 I will feel pretty comfortable making them. Even as a rank armature making chairs (would be my first ones) they have to be better than the crap we currently own. The wood isn’t that expensive and I do like woodworking with hand tools (started about 3 years ago).

  12. That is a beautiful photo, but I just can’t make myself like Windsor chairs. I certainly do appreciate & admire the skill required to build them but I’d never have one in my house. Nomex clothing is on 🙂

  13. Chris, I was wondering if you might be able to point me in a proper direction. After the collapsing chair fiasco mentioned above, I have gone ahead and purchased the LAP Welsh Stick chair book and the Pop Woodworking DVD Megan worked on that you are in. Between those two, and poking through your blogs, I am confident that I can make chairs for my home.

    Do you have a recommendation for where I can look at specific chair designs to finalize which one I want to make (or duplicate)? Maybe when the book arrives, there will be plenty of images of different design modifications. I am too new to feel confident trying to design something from scratch. Many thanks for the help.

      1. Thank you. I have ordered the book. After reading this and the other book and DVD mentioned above I will look more closely at Curtis’s plans. The certainly do look amazing.

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