The Lost Art Press storefront will be closed this Friday (Sept. 4) because we’ll be in Iowa at Handworks, and the following Monday (Sept. 7) so we can
a) recover from Handworks (here’s hoping Chris and I don’t once again bring home a bad case of Covid…or a not-bad case of Covid, for that matter) and
b) because it’s the Labor Day holiday
But the doors are open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. today, tomorrow and Wednesday (Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2)
– Fitz
K Schubeck, Monroe Robinson’s wife, recently released a short YouTube production about their time at Dick Proenneke’s cabin.
Dick spent 31 years living alone in the Alaska wilderness, building his cabin and nearly everything he needed to survive. His adventures were documented on the program “Alone in the Wilderness” on PBS.
After Dick left his cabin, Monroe and K spent 19 summers caring for it and giving tours.
Fans of Monroe’s book, “The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke,” will enjoy K’s YouTube production, which includes video content taken at Dick’s cabin as well as new photos not featured in the book. It’s a fun watch!
While Monroe’s book focuses on the tools and objects he made and includes hundreds of Dick’s journal entries along with Monroe’s commentary, it also highlights what life was like for Dick, such as this journal entry, written during a not-so-balmy August day 48 years ago, along with Monroe’s commentary.
Dick Proenneke’s journal entry:
August 2, 1979:
Clear, Calm, & 36 degrees.
I woke up at four and saw the sun light the mountains down country soon after. Another pretty day and I was up to stay at 4:15. Today would be a good day to go up Hope Creek and climb to my peak at the head of the 2nd canyon. A few clouds would only make the pictures nice but I didn’t want the Kijik River’s upper reaches in shadow.
It was going to be a warm day if it stayed clear so I would dress cool. Give those beefed up crampons the test for it is a good climb and some rock.
Clouds forming and coming over the high ridge at a good clip. A mile to go and a snow patch leading nearly to the ridge. I changed to hiking boots and crampons. The snow wet near the bottom but became more solid as I climbed and I suspect it froze a little high up. At last the ridge looking towards Redoubt and Illiamna Volcanoes. Cotton clouds, lots of them hanging about the many peaks.
The sun moved around and Redoubt was framed by clouds. A beautiful scene and worth the climb to see it. No watch along and it is seldom that I carry one any more. Illiamna Volcano came in the clear and still putting out that huge volume of steam.
Heading for home and just below the peak a very long and steep snow patch leads down. A better way if you don’t lose your grip and slide and maybe roll and tumble until you hit a rock out crop below. Otherwise it was travel the ups and downs of the ridge back to where I had climbed. Some hazards in the form of loose rock there too. I lashed on my spikes and eased over the edge. Kick a good foothold before letting go of the last one. It was slow but going down instead of scrambling over the minor peaks. The snow was wet and soft now. It would ball up under the crampons and make the spikes ineffective. Stop and rap them a good one with my walking staff to dislodge it. No spills and I was soon traveling at a rate that would take me to Hope Creek in 45 minutes.
Monroe Robinson’s commentary:
“My peak” is four-and-a-half miles up Hope Canyon, and 3,500′ above Twin Lakes on a rocky, rubble hump along the extended ridge separating the watershed of Twin Lakes from the rugged Kijik River drainage. It is not a towering mountain and this fits what I know of Dick, that it is this ridge-line peak he referred to as “my peak” or “my mountain.” We now call it Proenneke Peak. From the valley floor the peak is slightly more than a half-mile in distance and up 2,000′ of loose scree and rotten rock. Dick’s description of choosing between the “very long and steep snow patch” and “loose rock” creates an understated image of descending either route from this ridge.
Dick loved to hike to “my peak.” The view is stunning. In 2001, not knowing its significance in Dick’s life, I laid on this ridge watching a gyrfalcon escort a golden eagle out of the area more than a thousand feet above me. Once the eagle was on its way out of the gyrfalcon’s defended territory, the gyrfalcon dove on me before circling ever closer, just a hundred feet overhead. Minutes later I spotted the gyrfalcon’s fledgling sitting on the cliff below.
In 2003, Dick’s ashes were buried near a flowering spotted saxifrage on Proenneke Peak. K. and I, along with four park service employees including historian John Branson, ranger/pilot Leon Alsworth, head ranger Lee Fink and ranger Warren Hill, took part in Dick’s Last Hike. Dick’s brother Raymond was part of choosing this spot for Dick’s ashes. As we approached the peak a few Dall sheep walked from the peak. They stood below, feeding as we held a tribute to Dick.
On the way down we picked blueberries. I made sourdough blueberry pancakes using Dick’s starter. Sitting outside Spike’s cabin we looked through a spotting scope and watched the Dall sheep standing on the peak.
In 2016, K. and I, along with our friends and volunteers at the Lower Twin ranger cabin, Dan Molina and Jennifer Jones Molina, took Raymond Proenneke’s ashes to leave next to Dick’s unmarked site. Again, Dall sheep were on the peak as we approached. Having looked through the scope at Proenneke Peak dozens of times through the years, I wonder the meaning of seeing sheep there only on those two occasions.
We just released an entirely revised video on how to build a comb-back stick chair. But before you consider purchasing it, check your email. If you bought the original video sometime during the last four years, you should’ve received an email giving you free access to the new video.
If you didn’t get the email, log into your account at lostartpress.com. After you log in, click on the button that says: My Downloadable Files. If you bought the previous video, the files for the new video will be there.
If you didn’t buy the previous video, here’s some important news: You can buy the new video for 50 percent off for the next 30 days. Here’s the link. Like all of our videos, this one has zero DRM (digital rights management). That means you can download the files and transfer them to any device. The files won’t ever just disappear (unless you delete them).
If have trouble accessing the new video, ask [email protected] for assistance.
Why the Revised Video?
During the last four years I’ve come up with a lot of ways to simplify and streamline the process for building a comb-back stick chair. The new video shows all these processes. The new techniques are the result of teaching chairmaking to hundreds of students during the last four years and building 100+ more chairs on my own.
This video is suitable for anyone who wants to start making chairs. No previous chairmaking experience is needed. And the tool list is mostly stuff you probably already own.
Later this year we plan to update the video on building a Gibson chair as well. And we’ll distribute that revised video the same way we’re distributing this one.
— Christopher Schwarz
We have all the Lost Art Press books, Crucible tools (including 150 of our new lump hammers!) and apparel ready to ship out to Handworks in Amana, Iowa for the Sept. 4-5 show, and we’re hauling ourselves out there on Sept. 3. The show runs from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and features 80 hand tool demonstrators and vendors – the largest Handworks yet! (You’ll find us in the Festhalle Barn.)
And make sure you’re in the Festhalle Barn at 10 a.m. on Saturday for Christopher Schwarz and Mike Siemsen’s presentation! Chris won’t let me reveal his topic … but it will make you both laugh and cry. And while I don’t know what Mike is planning, I have no doubt it will make you laugh; he’s hilarious.
We’ll have signed copies of Christopher’s many LAP books and my one LAP book available, and we are happy to personalize them upon request. We’ll be in our booth for pretty much for the entire show – barring bathroom breaks – so come on by whenever if you want to say hey to us. We also have two other LAP authors scheduled for book signings. Mike Pekovich, author of “Benchwork,” will be at the LAP booth from noon-1 p.m. both days to sign copies of his latest book. Nick Kroll, author of “Make Fresh Milk Paint,” will be demonstrating fresh milk paint and signing his book from 2-3 p.m. both days.
We hope to see you there!
– Fitz
I started teaching chairmaking one year ago, fresh off a week assisting Christopher Schwarz’s Chairmaker’s Toolbox class. I had just a few chairs under my belt and probably wasn’t quite ready to teach anyone else how to make them, but I had a willing co-teacher and enough reckless abandon to try. We set off on a 10-week adventure, building chairs in three-hour chunks on Monday nights.
After a few weeks, one of the students came in and said, “I’ve been reading the book after class – you sound exactly like Chris!”
He wasn’t wrong. I am a self-taught woodworker; the closest thing I had to a woodworking education was “The Stick Chair Book,” the LAP blog, and two weeks at the Willard Street shop. I pored over my notes before every class. It made perfect sense that I was teaching in Chris’s voice. Each week felt like a final exam that I was cramming for, hoping we could make it through the evening with everyone’s parts intact.
I had to cram because I wasn’t fluent in chairmaking yet – I knew the steps but I didn’t really speak the language. I studied and memorized so I could remember how to do something and confidently answer student questions about “what if?” or “why?”– even if those answers weren’t based in personal experience. In other words: I faked it ’til I made it. And we ended up with a batch of decent chairs.
On the last day of the CMT class in 2025, Chris invited me back to co-teach the next one. I wasn’t ready when he asked me but I had a whole year to get there.
Fluency only comes with time on the tools and hours at the bench. I committed myself to making more chairs, from “The Stick Chair Book” and of my own design. I was determined to fix my mistakes (of which there were many: cracked arms, failed finishes, spelched mortises … the list goes on!) so that I could fix student mistakes. I challenged myself to build without referencing notes, relying instead on instinct and memory. It worked. Once I absorbed the processes, teaching became less like reading off a script. It morphed into something more creative, more fun. The act of teaching became a constant soothing affirmation: You know what you are doing. You Are A Chairmaker.
When I walked into the LAP shop two weeks ago, though, I was hit with a whole new set of doubts. I knew I could build a chair and teach a class, but what would it be like teaching in front of the person who taught me? Would the students ask me any questions or would they just want to talk to Chris? How embarrassing is it going to be when he hears me rip off one of his jokes? Am I just a bad bootleg?
Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about. I surprised myself: I had built the muscle memory; developed my own questionable jokes (ask me about Tenon Town!); and developed the confidence to teach in my own way, injected with my personality and my experience. I didn’t feel like a mimic anymore; I felt like a part of a craft tradition.
And the student feedback this time?
“You and Chris are so different – you make a great pair.”
