You can now order the carefully chosen wooden parts needed for the Hobbit-y Chair from The Stick Chair Journal No. 2. The kits are $295 and are in red elm, my favorite chairmaking wood.
You can order a kit here from Alexander Brothers in Virginia. Shea Alexander and his employees have been supplying me with chair wood for almost a year now, and I am really happy with the stock they pick, both for straightness of the grain and overall beauty.
We do not receive any royalty or kickback on the sales of these kits. Shea was willing to do them, and we consider it a service for people who live in areas where wood is difficult to purchase, or where the woodworker isn’t confident in choosing their wood.
Two new stick chairs. The one on the left was built by a student. The one on the right is mine.
I’ve never shown my work in a gallery. I’ve been asked a few times, but my problem is this: I don’t want to give up 50 percent of the sales price to the gallery. I’d rather skip the glory of cheese and boxed wine in plastic cups and sell my work direct.
But gallery shows are fun. And you get to see a lot of interesting work. So we are going to put on our own show on Saturday, Nov. 23, at our Willard Street storefront. And it’s going to be a little different.
The Chair Show will show my chairmaking arc (and my influences) over a 21-year span. There will be an original John Brown Cardigan chair, a Chris Williams four-stick Welsh stick chair, plus an original Welsh antique I bought from chairmaker John Porritt.
I’ll be showing my first chair, plus some other waypoints on the journey – my first lowback, the chair from “The Anarchist’s Design Book” and some prototypes.
Plus, I’ll have some new chairs to sell. These will be priced at the low end of my typical range.
Here’s the fun part: You’ll be able to touch, study and measure all of them. And you’ll be able to sit in all of them (with one exception – the Welsh antique needs a repair).
Like all our Open Days, we’ll have our complete line of books and tools here, plus blemished books for sale and some tools, too. Megan will be on hand to sign her new book “Dutch Tool Chests.” And Wally will accept your petting. The show will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 23 at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Kentucky 41011.
Steve lines up the stick (taped to the drill) with the mortise location on the side stretcher.
I cut dovetails pretty much the exact same way I did 20 years ago. Same layout, same sawing, same chiseling, same fitting. But when it comes to my chairmaking, things seem to change every day.
I’ve been building stick chairs since 2003 (and frame chairs since 1997). So it’s not like I am new to the chairmaking craft. But for some reason, I am constantly finding new and usually small ways to make things easier.
When I wrote “The Stick Chair Book,” I thought I was pretty much settled in how I make my chairs. But by the time we had to reorder the second printing, I decided to revise the book. Not in major ways, but in many little minor ways. And I added a lot of little shortcuts I had discovered.
Now, about a year after releasing the revised edition of “The Stick Chair Book,” I’d like to revise it again for the next printing. Again, nothing major, just small things here and there that make it easier to drill and assemble things.
Even today, I came up with a stupid little trick that really helped. Here it is. When drilling the mortises for the stretchers, tape a stick or skewer or chopstick to the centerline seam of your drill. It helps immeasurably in lining up the drill between the mortises in the legs and between the mortises in the side stretchers.
I’ve seen lots of tricks that use rubber bands or lasers. But none is as simple as taping a scrap to the drill.
When the scrap is aligned with both mortises, Steve drills the mortise in the side stretcher.
As a chairmaker and author, I know I’m not alone in the way I feel about my past writings. Many other chairmakers are constantly finding new ways to make the process a little easier.
Why have we not created the “Unified Method of All Chairmaking?” Because there are at least 100 ways to make a chair. And 1,000 tricks that go with each method.
This is one of the things I love about woodworking – the constant discovery. But it can be frustrating both as an author and a reader.
A friend recently took a furniture design course taught by a guy I’ll call Mr. Famous Furniture Maker. During the class there were lectures, field trips to find inspiration, drawing lessons, scale model-making and critiques.
“Well,” I asked my friend, “how was the class?”
“Great,” he replied. “Now I know how to design furniture that looks exactly like Mr. Famous Furniture Maker’s pieces.”
This is, of course, one way to learn design. But not everyone wants to become a Junior Sam Maloof or James Krenov the VIII. Some woodworkers just want to make a side table, dry sink or tater bin that is well-proportioned and pleasing to look at.
One excellent path to learn design has been blazed by Jim Tolpin and George Walker, who have written a series of books that teach design using artisan geometry and whole-number ratios. During the last 11 years, we’ve edited all of Tolpin and Walker’s books for Lost Art Press and deeply appreciate that their approach is style-agnostic and crystal-clear.
This book, “Principles of Design,” is an excellent and complementary approach to Tolpin and Walker. It was first published in 1916 under the title “Industrial Arts Design” and written by William H. Varnum (1878-1946). We renamed it “Principles of Design,” which is a far more apt title.
Varnum, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, was the author of two important design books, plus some other works on setting up a curriculum for shop teachers.
I own copies of all his works, but this one is my favorite. The book was written to teach shop teachers how to teach furniture design. And the book reads like the syllabus for an excellent college-level course in the fundamentals of furniture design.
Varnum lays out a series of step-by-step rules to guide the reader through the process of designing furniture, pottery and metalwork. It begins with function and form, of course. But it then delves into common-sense rules for dividing up a form both horizontally and vertically. These rules work. And once you read them and see the accompanying illustrations, I think you’ll say: “Of course.”
Varnum explains how to “enrich” the shape or contours of a design. Then how to enrich the surfaces. And there is an excellent section on using color.
Many of these rules have been embedded in buildings and furniture for centuries. Many of us know the rules innately. But Varnum puts them to paper in ways that allow us to use them to create new works.
“Principles of Design” was written during the waning years of the American Arts & Crafts movement, so the examples used in the book are gorgeous Craftsman designs and earlier traditional forms. Varnum’s rules apply to all furniture forms, but the austerity of the Arts & Crafts pieces in the book help make the use of his rules easy to comprehend and digest.
Bright paper plus stochastic printing make this book a pleasure to read.
Mechanical Specifications
The original printing of this book was gorgeous, so we sought to equal or exceed its specifications. The book is 7″ x 9-5/8″ and printed on #80 matte coated paper, which is a close match to the original. Because some of the details in the photos are dark, we chose a press that could do stochastic printing, which gives sharper detail. The book’s signatures are sewn together, backed with fiber tape and wrapped with heavy boards. The covers are wrapped in cotton cloth and printed in gold foil.
Like all our books, “Principles of Design” is printed in the United States. It is $41 plus shipping. We will offer this book to all our retailers worldwide, but it is up to them to carry it or not.
Note: We have printed only 3,000 copies of this historical text. Because space at our warehouse is at a premium, we do not plan on any future press runs of “Principles of Design.”
This comb-back stick chair is designed for dining and working at a desk, though its back is leaned back just a bit more to add some comfort.
I’m offering it for sale for $1,500 via a random drawing. The price includes crating and shipping to your door anywhere in the lower 48 states of the U.S. Details on the sale are at the bottom of this entry. First, some notes about the chair.
The chair is made from American sycamore (seat, arms and comb) and dead-straight red oak for the legs, stretchers and sticks. The sticks are shaved and left octagonal. All the tenons are cut slightly proud and burnished. All the chair’s joints are assembled with animal glue, which is reversible, and wedged with hickory wedges selected for arrow-straight grain.
The seat is tilted 2.5°, with the chair’s back tilted 14.5° off the seat, making this a great chair for enjoying a meal or writing a letter. The seat is 17” off the floor, making it comfortable for most sitters. The chair is 40” tall overall.
It is finished in soft wax, a non-toxic finish we make here in the shop. The finish is not terribly durable, but it is easy to repair if you ever damage it. The finish lasts many years if you don’t abuse it, and the oil from your skin enhances it and adds to the luster. THis is a finish that looks better every year.
Like all my chairs, I make them as best I can, but most of the work is by hand. So you will find an occasional stray tool mark or tiny imperfection. These are not left intentionally, but they are the result of hand work.
This is my 19th chair this year.
How to Buy the Chair
The chair is being sold via a random drawing. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, Sept. 27. Please use the subject line: “Sycamore Chair.” In the email please include your:
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
If you are the “winner,” the chair will be shipped to your door. The price includes the crate and all shipping charges. Alternatively, the chair can be picked up at our storefront. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.)
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. You can get free patterns for this chair here.
