Peter Follansbee is wrapping up his carved box class here tonight, but has decided to stay through tomorrow so that he can be here for the last open house of the year (and anyway, it might take until tomorrow morning to clean up…). We have his two books – “Joiner’s Work” and “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree” (co-authored with Jennie Alexander) – in stock here, and he’ll be happy to sign them.
And a special offer: During a rare fit of cleaning and organizing my home office, I found an extra copy of “Joint Stool” with a book plate in the front signed by both Peter and Jennie (who is no longer with us), and I’m giving it away to one lucky winner from among tomorrow’s open house attendees. We’ll have slips to fill out, and Peter will draw the winner from amongst the entries at 4 p.m. (You needn’t stick around until 4 p.m. unless you want to – I’ll mail the book to the winner if need be).
I’m also pleased to announce that Nancy Hiller is planning to visit from Bloomington – barring inclement weather, she’ll be here at around 11 a.m.! We have plenty of the new edition of her “Making Things Work: Tales from a Cabinetmaker’s Life” on hand, and she, too, will be happy to sign them, for as long as she’s able to stay.
Also: Ask to see the clock, eat cookies (made by professional cook Terry West, aka Chris’ mom), ask woodworking questions and try out tools.
Doors open at 10 a.m. (and close at 5 p.m.): 837 Willard St., Covington, Ky., 41011.
There’s a widespread belief that anyone who can hold a brush is capable of painting. What’s up with the spatters on the baseboard and floor? I asked a painter hired by the woman who’d rented my bungalow back in 2003. “You need to get used to owning a rental” was his response. Translation: Shoddy work is good enough in rental properties. (I strongly disagree.) Between peeling or chipping paint due to improper surface preparation, varying shades or sheens caused by insufficient stirring, drips, spatters and bugs – literal or figurative – in the finish, America’s houses bear witness to generations of humans who should probably never have been allowed to apply paint.
A recent job reminded me that the same goes for those who work in paint stores. There’s a big difference between pressing buttons based on a manufacturer’s formula and understanding color theory, along with the chemical components of contemporary coatings. After days of anxious deliberation and nearly $40 in samples, my client decided on a cabinet color. I called in the order for a gallon and drove to the paint store first thing the next morning to pick it up. Before leaving the store I asked the clerk to open the can – experience has taught me it’s worth taking a minute to check the color instead of waiting until you’re at the shop or jobsite to discover it’s not what you ordered.
Most of the time the color is spot on and I go on my way, but this time it looked off. I asked the clerk, Chris Slater, to compare it to the card. It was not the same color.
Ideal versus reality. The color on the right is close to what it should have been. The one on the left is what the formula actually produced.
Chris, who has worked at the store about 16 years, explained that the cause was likely the colorant; I was buying paint with a different base from that sold for samples, and although he had mixed the gallon with the formula designed for the product I was buying, on rare occasions the shades don’t match. Apparently we were dealing with one of those rogue, hard-to-match colors.
He said he would custom-mix a gallon. He began the process by using the computer to generate a formula for the match based on the color chip. The result still wasn’t quite right; he thought he could get closer with a custom match based on experience and his own eye.
The next morning I picked up the gallon of paint, which seemed perfect.
Chris’s first attempt at a color match is all-but perfect. Aside from the slightly higher sheen of the paint relative to the flat card stock, can you see the paint rubbed onto the “rich cream” chip?
I applied the first coat to the smallest cabinet, just in case it turned out not to be right. Once it had dried, my client said it was close…but still a little lighter and yellower than she was hoping for. Had I been working in Bloomington, I would have run the can back to the paint store, knowing the crew would do whatever was necessary to get it right. But I was 60 miles away. (Fortunately, this is the first time I’ve had this experience in many years.)
The following morning I asked Chris to speak with his rep at Benjamin Moore. This was not the paint store’s fault, but an error by the manufacturers, whose job it is to ensure that each of the subtle gradations in color they advertise is reproducible across the range of bases they sell.
Chris went through his paces, mixing three new gallons of paint at no charge, authorized by the Benjamin Moore rep.
Service with a smile from Chris Slater.
I brushed a sample of each on a section of wall that will be tiled and let them dry. Luckily, my client loved one of them and I was able to finish the job.
The Moral of the Story
This experience cost me several hours of productive work and meant that other customers in the paint store had to wait longer than they should have to be served, while Chris, one of a limited number of employees, was working to make our customer happy. Although it was frustrating for all of us, it was a great example of working together to solve a problem, demonstrating a level of knowledge and commitment you’re unlikely to find in big-box stores. The paint store I frequent, Bloomington Paint and Wallpaper, is family-owned and has been in business for almost a century. It’s still in business largely because, in addition to selling products of high quality, it has a strong service ethic and places a premium on training its employees.
Bloomington Paint and Wallpaper in its former location on the Downtown Square.
A Welsh side chair/back stool made by John Porritt. In an April 6-10, 2020, class, students will make their own versions of this traditional form.
John Porritt, a woodworker who trained in the U.K. – and who had one of his chairs praised by John Brown in a Good Woodworking column! – is coming to Covington April 6-10, 2020, to teach a side chair (also known as a backstool) class, and we could not be more excited. In addition to making chairs, John is amazing at repair and color work, and he has restored tools for Jim Bode, Martin Donnelly, Lee Richmond and many collectors both here and abroad. He’s one of the traditional chairmakers Christopher Schwarz wishes he had found 20 years sooner. (You can read more about him in this post from Chris.)
This is not a class for beginning woodworkers – though if you’re confident in your sharpening skills and use of basic bench tools, you’ll be fine (you needn’t be an accomplished chairmaker).
Each student (it will, as usual, be limited to six) will make his or her own version of this traditional Welsh chair out of air-dried elm and ash, which is to say there’s some room for expression. John will, as he writes, discuss “the aesthetics and elements that line, skill, happenstance, materials and luck produce,” and students will use those within the constraints of the form to build their own chairs.
I asked John his thought on the craft to help me better write a class description – but I love the inherent tension in what he said, so I’m offering his thoughts verbatim instead:
Some thoughts on ways of making and seeing Welsh stick chairs.
• To be inspired by the past whilst using the training, tools and eye of a 21st-century artisan – to make something of now.
• To make with a view to getting a flavour of the old, with fewer tools, trying to step into the shoes of the older makers, emulating their speed or leisure, tool marks, and lack of machine culture to produce an object that time will age.
• To produce a chair that is essentially an old chair, aging wood surfaces and paint, introducing distress and wear. Could be called a reproduction, a fake, an homage, probably a few other things too! This is almost impossible as something of today is invariably there. Should it be by chance a great fake, time will uncover it as artificially aged surfaces will change over time differently to natural age. But like the old adage, ‘you can fool some of the people some of the time…’
• Do what you want, but be honest with yourself. You’ll know what you have or haven’t achieved.
For me, these 4 approaches are equally valid, will appeal to different people, and all can – when done well – reach across to another human being to appreciate, enjoy, and maybe even purchase. This is important.
A special treat for us – and for six students – Christopher Williams is traveling to Covington from Wales to teach a Welsh Stick Chair class January 27-31, 2020.
When registering for the class, you’ll be charged a $60 non-refundable administrative fee (after the class sells out, a waitlist will open; signing up for the waitlist is free). After registering, the six in the class will be sent an invoice for the class fee of $1,500, which will be due upon receipt, given the relatively short time until the class. If, after paying the class fee of $1,500, you need to drop the class, we can offer a refund of said class fee only if we can fill your slot from the waitlist – in other words, please be sure you can take the class before registering. I know this is strict, but there are a few students who play a juggling game with classes and deposits. We do not want to play this game.
Attendees will receive a tool list and details on booking accommodations in the Covington area. Don’t worry – there are lots of rooms here.
A materials fee will be due on the day the class begins. We’re trying to source as much of the material from tree services, so we don’t yet know what the fee will be. Likely about $300.
Chris is a fantastic chairmaker and worked with John Brown for many years in refining and exploring the Welsh Stick Chair form. (In fact, Brown likely invented the term “Welsh Stick Chairs,” which we all use today.) Chris’s focus as a chairmaker is on achieving perfection in these chairs while using the barest minimum of tools. His classes focus on the skills and mindset to make these chairs – not jigs or machines.
As a result, this is definitely not a beginner chair class. We ask that anyone who registers for the class/waitlist to have prior chairmaking experience. The chair for this class will have six sticks making up the chair’s back. Each chair will turn out a little different based on the materials and the maker. That is one of the (many) beautiful aspects of this chair.
This is a rare experience to learn chairmaking from someone who has lived and breathed it his entire life, who has made hundreds of these chairs and has a direct link to John Brown that lasted many years.
We promise this will be one of the most intense and gratifying weeks of your woodworking career. Chris gives 100 percent during the entire class (and afterward) – answering questions about Wales, chairmaking, John Brown and (if you’re nice) rugby. All your senses will be involved. We’ll make sure everyone eats and drinks well and gets a good taste of what this area has to offer. Unless you are a devoted hermit, I think you’ll find the evenings as enlightening and stimulating as the classroom time.
