Saint Maud’s – a community workshop in northern Wisconsin – just started a 38-week course for 4-H kids to build the armchair in “Build a Chair from Bulls%$t.” Check out the first video here.
They’ll be posting videos on Instagram of the kids as they build their chairs. We’re going to follow along. You can, too. Here’s their Instagram feed. And their Facebook page.
The public workshop resides in a decommissioned Catholic church (hence the “saint” part). And the “Maud?” That was the name of a beloved family dog. (It’s not a religious school. I don’t even know if there is a Saint Maud….)
It’s a great little organization. In addition to the public workshop, they operate a “Sloyd Bus” that travels to surrounding communities to spread the love of handwork to kids. Read more about the Sloyd Bus here.
The workshop was started by Karl and Charlie Zinsmaster in 2022. Charlie (the father) is a long-time community leader. Karl (the son) has a degree in furniture design and worked in New York City and Minnesota before returning home to start the workshop.
We’re all thrilled to see this. The book (which is free to download) is supposed to make chairmaking accessible to anyone with basic tools and home center materials. We can’t wait to see the chairs come together during the coming weeks.
Dr. Mike Epworth with one of his chairs inspired by Jimmy Possum chairs.
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.
A scale model of a Jimmy Possum chair made by Epworth.
“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:
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.
This low-slung Irish armchair is the first chair I’ve finished in soot, dirt and oil – a finish that gives the chair a deep brown-black-red color that you find on old stick chairs.
The chair is made entirely of elm (both red elm and American elm) and is one of the most comfortable chairs I make. The back is tilted at 20°, and the chair’s backrest cradles your shoulders to allow hours of comfortable sitting.
Up close, the finish shows the wood’s grain.
The finish is a combination of natural, non-toxic ingredients: soot (carbon black), red dirt from Ercolano, Italy) and purified linseed oil. The finish is low-luster, and it is designed to look better the more it is used. It is topcoated with our Soft Wax 2.0, and will wear gently over time. I developed this finish to create chairs that look correct in a home filled with antiques.
Like all stick chairs, this one bears imperfections that mark how it was made. The leg angles are not exact because they were drilled by hand and without guides. The arms and all the sticks were shaped entirely by hand with spokeshaves, planes and rasps.
The chair has a variety of textures, from the smooth backrest to the faceted sticks.
The entire chair is assembled with animal glue, which is reversible should your descendants ever need to repair it.
The seat height is 16-1/2”, which is intentionally low for lounging. The overall height of the chair is a compact 30”.
How to Buy the Chair
I’m selling this chair for $1,800 via a random drawing. The price includes shipping and crating to anywhere in the lower 48. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Wednesday, November 12. Please use the subject line: “Irish 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. There are no additional charges. Alternatively, the chair can be picked up at our storefront. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.)
The Anthe (pronounced ann-thee) Building in 2023, the year we purchased it.
It took two years and six months, but we have finally paid off the $267,000 loan we took out to purchase the Anthe Building – the Lost Art Press headquarters and fulfillment center.
This post is not intended as a gloat. Instead, it is an acknowledgment that for the last 30 months we have been living with a debt. And we have fought like crazy to get out from under it. And now that we have, we think that Lost Art Press is now 20 percent more unkillable.
This post is also a “thank you” to the hundreds of readers who helped pay for the $500,000 in repairs and improvements that were necessary to get the building functioning as an office, warehouse and storefront.
The repairs continue. After a massive flood this summer, we lost 3,000 books in the cellar to water damage. We are in the middle of making our building flood-resistant. And we have moved almost all our inventory out of the basement until we can direct more water away from the building.
Next up: We need to tuckpoint the masonry in the entire building. And we need to repair the original cornice that fronts Madison Avenue.
And then? More work to the storefront.
The storefront of the Anthe Building, about three months before we opened it to the public.
I am in love with our storefront, which is virtually unchanged since it was built in 1890. All the original woodwork and metal trim are intact. Even the original door hardware.
It’s in rough shape, but my urge is to leave it alone. I’ve been walking past this building for almost 20 years, and I appreciate its decay aesthetics.
But I know that’s probably not the right approach. So I’ve been working on a compromise (this debate is all in my head, by the way). I want to remove the loose paint on the woodwork and repaint everything with linseed oil paint (which is what they used originally). The metal trim has been painted to death. You can’t even see the Greek meander pattern in places. I think we will strip that paint on that metal trim and then repaint it with linseed oil paint as well.
There also is the cast iron part of the storefront. There are some losses due to rust. I need to think about this some more and talk to other store owners who have restored their cast iron storefronts.
There are a million other details, but I’ll stop boring you now.
Just know that Lost Art Press is again debt-free and ready to flush some cash down a toilet on our next weird book project.
I’ve long been interested in fish glues since reading about them in A.J. Roubo’s “l’Art du menuisier” from the 18th century. After two years of testing fish glue in our shop, we have decided to begin selling it.
Fish Stick Glue is a reversible adhesive with a long open time. It is ideal for complex assemblies and furniture that deserves to be repaired in the future.
Made from the skins of cod, Fish Stick flows nicely at room temperature, much like PVA. It has a long open time of 90 minutes, and it cleans up easily with hot water, even after it has dried.
It’s a little different than our liquid hide glue, Piggly No Wiggly. Here are the important differences.
Fish Stick Glue has a longer open time (about 90 minutes) compared to Piggly No Wiggly (about 20 minutes). We find that Fish Stick Glue needs more clamp time (about 12 hours) compared to Piggly No Wiggly (about four hours).
Fish Stick Glue doesn’t require heating before use, while Piggly No Wiggly needs a little gentle heat to flow nicely.
Fish Stick Glue is more easily reversible than Piggly No Wiggly, and it also is a little less water resistant.
Fish Stick Glue contains a bactericide, which makes it resistant to attack by microorganisms. The bactericide is an irritant, so the glue should not be swallowed. Piggly No Wiggly is made from only food-grade gelatin (from pigs), salt and water.
Both glues dry colorless and basically transparent. And both glues are made from by-products from the food industry that would otherwise be thrown away.
Finally, Fish Stick Glue is more expensive to make, so the price is a little higher.
Like all animal-based glues, you can expect Fish Stick to last at least a year in the bottle. If you keep it sealed in a cool, dry place, it will last much longer. It doesn’t smell like fish. Because of the bactericide, it smells a bit… minty. But I don’t think any mint plants were harmed in the making of the glue (can’t say that about the cods, however).
Fish Stick comes in 8-ounce bottles. Purchase two or three bottles, and you’ll receive a small discount. Made in Canada. Bottled in Covington. Product name by Megan Fitzpatrick.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. We have a small number of pinch rods in the store. More arrive tomorrow and Monday (in case we run out).
