Earlier this week, I put up a chair for sale that I was proud of. Not my thing, pride. But the chair represents a small milestone in my work.
I didn’t expect many people to bid on the green Irish chair I’d built. It’s a painted chair. It’s not a comb-back chair. And it’s painted. But here’s the humiliating thing. No one has bid on it.
So here’s the thing. The rules of the sale are the same. Bid on this chair (or not) by 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21. If the highest bid is $1, I will honor it. Here are the instructions for bidding.
Or maybe I shouldn’t build any more Irish armchairs in the future (no matter how comfortable they are).
Recently I finished up this green Irish armchair, and I’ve concluded it’s my best work yet. More than any other chair I’ve made, this chair gets closest to the intuitive style of chairmaking that I admire in Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
How did this happen? It was 20 years of practice plus two frantic days of building. I had to build this chair during a photo shoot over two short days. That meant I had to absolutely fly and build it with intuition and the wood on my bench.
As a result, the sticks are heavily faceted, the legs are thinner, the hands have proud tenons, the back sticks are a little longer than usual and the backrest is a different shape. All these decisions were made under duress and with almost no thought. Here is a short moviefilm I made to explain it.
Oh, it sits great, too.
Here are the details. The chair is made of red oak. All the joints are glued with hide glue so they can be easily repaired. The chair is painted with General Finishes Milk Paint in Basil with a thin coat of washed raw linseed oil (this gives it a little glow).
The seat is 16-1/4” off the floor. The overall chair is 33” high and 27” wide.
I am selling this chair via a silent auction.
Purchasing the Chair
If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 5 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday, Sept. 21. Please use the subject line: “Irish Chair.” In the email please include your:
Bid
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
The highest bid wins. If you are the “winner,” the chair can be picked up at our storefront for free. Or we can crate it and ship it to your door for a flat $250 in the lower 48. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.)
Whew. Now I am a bit paralyzed with my next chair. So do I need to invent a fake crisis to get the same effect? Or will it be easy now that I have seen it come from my own hands?
A stack of red oak ready to become a stick chair. Guided by this squishy spirit animal.
This weekend is the calm period before our class with The Chairmakers Toolbox next week. The wood in the above photo? Y’all paid for that with your contributions. The money you donated will also feed them all week. And there was extra cash ($2,700) left over, which was donated directly to The Chairmakers Toolbox. So thank you.
So onto today’s Open Wire, which we hold almost every Saturday. Type your question about woodworking into the comment field below. Megan and I will try our best to answer it. Apologies if our answers are brief and not surrounded by the usual pleasantries. Saturdays are a lot of typing.
We have three new items in stock here in Covington that are ready to ship.
First up is a brass Warrington-pattern hammer. This tool was at the request of readers and the machinists at Machine Time (which makes our hammer heads). The brass is hard enough for the light duty of a small hammer – and it won’t corrode.
I do not know if we will make this a regular stock item – it depends on how it sells.
Also new are the Crucible Engraving Tools. This small knife handle and cutters allow you to engrave straight lines and arcs (with the help of a compass) on hardwoods and softwoods. This tool was developed during the writing of “The American Peasant,” my next book. The tool is used to do work such as this:
A peasant wall cabinet engraved using our new cutters.
And the tool itself looks like this:
The Crucible Engraving Tool and its cutters.
The tool with two cutters is $27. It includes instructions for sharpening and use.
Finally, we have a new batch of all-cotton, US-made T-shirts. The shirts are made in Tennessee and printed in Covington. They are soft, true-to-size and printed with our logo in white. Sizes Small to XXXL are available.
Oh, and we are closing out the last of our grey T-shirts. They are on deep discount and can be found here.
The green paint can appear almost black in some light.
I’ve used linseed oil paint on casework for some time; this is my first chair using the stuff. This comb-back is painted with Holkham green from Allbäck. On top of the paint is a thin coat of beeswax and washed linseed oil.
I am pleased by the result. The hand-brushed paint shows the grain’s figure. And it has a smooth feel, without being plastic-y. Like all hand jobs (no pun intended), the paint is not perfect. Some very small areas are worn a bit, especially on the chair’s facets. I like the look. It will only look better as it ages – that’s one of the many charms of linseed oil paint.
This chair is built with a mix of woods: red elm for the seat, undercarriage and comb. The armbow is red oak. The sticks are ash. All parts are sawn or rived for maximum strength. All the housed joints use animal glue (Death Grip, to be exact). It is reversible, should repairs become necessary in a few dozen years.
The chair is set up for general use. The back tilts at 14°, and the seat tilts back 5°. The seat height is 16-3/4”, offering 19” between the arms. The chair is 40” tall overall. If you need the seat lowered, I am happy to do that – no extra charge.
Or you could run some thread through the crease….
The hands of the chair feature an unusual crease detail that I saw on a chair at St Fagans National Museum of Wales in the museum’s storerooms. It is decorative. But, yes you could perch a cigarette there.
I am selling this chair via a random drawing.
Purchasing the Chair
The chair is $1,650 plus $250 shipping to your door in the lower 48. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) If you wish to buy the chair, send an email with the subject line “green-comb back” to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 5 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday, Sept. 14. In the email please include your:
First name and last name
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
After all the emails have arrived, we will pick a winner that evening via a random drawing.
If you are the “winner,” the chair can be picked up at our storefront for free. Or we can ship it to you via common carrier. We now charge a flat $250 to ship a chair anywhere in the lower 48 states.
