I am particularly excited to announce that we will publish a book about the Jimmy Possum chair tradition by Dr. Mike Epworth, who has spent decades studying, researching and building these remarkable Australian folk chairs.
The book’s working title is “Wild Line: The Past and Future of the Jimmy Possum Chairmaking Tradition.” We don’t have a publication date yet, but I suspect it will be a short wait for this book. Epworth has been building up to write this book during his entire adult life.
The Jimmy Possum chair is a form unique to Australia that was born in the Meander Valley of Tasmania in the 19th century. The way the chair is made is ingenious. The front legs of the chair pass through the seat to support the arm. The back legs also pass through the seat at an angle. They also support the arm, and the angle of the back leg provides the rake needed to stabilize the chair.
There are many stories and legends attached to the chair. And the chair has seen many iterations from different makers.
Epworth’s book promises to plumb the history of the chair and the families who built it. But the book will go much further than that – exploring the revival of the chair in the 20th century and plotting out a future for it.
“In the turning of the drawknife, the sound of timber splitting, there remains what Walter Benjamin called the ‘aura’ of the handmade: that trace of presence which cannot be reproduced or perfected, only renewed. It is the slow shimmer of memory held in matter, the conversation between what was made and what is yet to be made,” Epworth writes. “To follow the wild line is to resist the smooth surfaces of modernity, to stay close to the irregular, the felt, the human. The Jimmy Possum tradition, like the land, is never finished. It waits for the next hand, the next imagination, the next making.”
Epworth now builds the chair (and teaches others to build it) using tools and workholding that fit into a backpack. And he uses recycled materials to make his chairs. Many times his classes are for non-woodworkers, and he uses the chair as a way to build community and memory among the classmates.
If you want to read more about Epworth’s interesting work, here are some links to follow:
Bodja Design, Instagram account and website.
Jimmy Possum Society, Instagram account.
During my trip to Australia last month I got to see a number of original Jimmy Possum chairs at The Australian Centre for Rare Arts & Forgotten Trades. And I got to meet Epworth and his partner, Bronwyn Harm, who has been taking photos and videos to support Epworth’s research.
All this quickly convinced me that readers would love a book on this chair. I can’t wait to read it.
— Christopher Schwarz