Author Nick Kroll with some green paint he made for an Irish chair.
Nick Kroll, the author of “Make Fresh Milk Paint,” is teaching a class on the process on April 29 at the Dictum classroom in Munich. You can read more about the course and sign up at Dictum’s website.
Nick is a great teacher and an absolute fount of knowledge when it comes to making paint, mixing pigments and applying the paint. Before he wrote his book, he spent years refining his recipes and testing the results on furniture.
The paint-making process is simple, and the paint is outstanding – like nothing I’ve ever used before. It goes on like an acrylic, dries quickly and wears like iron. If you have been itching to try making some of this paint, this class will make you a near-expert in a day.
So if you are in Europe, this is definitely worth a trip to Munich.
Got a woodworking question or a query about what’s happening at Lost Art Press? It’s your lucky day – it’s time for Open Wire!
You have until 5 p.m. Eastern to pose your question in the comments section below, and we’ll respond – hopefully with a informed and useful answer…but no promises on that front. Also, we stayed out late at a concert so we might not start answering until a wee bit late.
The remaining Open Wire dates for the year are: April 18 June 20 August 8 October 19 December 12
Note: Comments are now closed for this session. See you in April.
Last month we built a bunch of Irish stick chairs with Rex Krueger, James Wright and Eoin Reardon, and they have begun posting videos about the process.
Here is Rex’s new video on the adventure. It gives a great overview of our week – including the tacos and pizza.
James Wright – Wood by Wright – has posted a few great videos that show how we built the chairs using a variety of methods, including a frame saw and a band saw.
Here’s the main video from James. He also gathered up all his reels here. After the chair build ended, Rex and James headed out to Homestead Heritage (my favorite tool store). Then James and Eoin Reardon went on a literal odyssey across the Eastern United States to see tools and hand-tool woodworking.
The videos are fun and much much better than the stuff I post. If you want a great taste of what it’s like to build stick chairs, you’ll enjoy these.
I hope the four of us can get together again. The craft is always more fun when you do it with a group of goofballs.
The kit includes all the stock you need to build the chair, including the massive seat and a perfectly bent armbow. All the stock is selected to be straight for chairmaking. You basically get to start building right after you open the box.
I’ve been 100 percent thrilled with the stock I’ve bought from Alexander Brothers. You can buy with confidence that the wood will be primo. They’re woodworkers, as well as furniture makers.
Shea Alexander says this might be the only run of this chair kit that they’ll offer. So don’t tarry.
The Mid-West Tool Collector’s Association (mwtca.org) printed up a nice profile of us in their March issue of The Gristmill. Editor Jay Whittington drove here for a visit (along with his wife) and we talked for most of a day about the craft, tools and how to get them in the hands of the next generation.
The article is a whopping eight pages long and features some nice photos of our buildings, workshop, storefront and fulfillment center. Plus, my blather!
During the last couple years I’ve returned to the membership rolls of the M-WTCA. I had been a member for more than a decade. Then, during the pandemic, I let my membership lapse (as well as my personal hygiene).
I’m so happy to be back. And during my absence, the M-WTCA has taken on lots of younger members and has upgraded The Gristmill’s paper, design and content. Whittington and a lot of the new members are trying to focus on using old tools as much as collecting them.
YouTuber James Wright epitomizes the drive of this younger generation. If you want a taste of life in the organization, then you should absolutely follow his Instagram feed. He attends a lot of the meetings and posts mouthwatering videos of the tools on display and for sale at the meetings.
I’ve missed those meetings. The coffee, the donuts and the tailgating. I hope I can find the time to attend some of the regional meetings near us this year.
If you dislike buying tools on eBay, joining M-WTCA is the best solution. The members of the club sell user tools at extremely fair prices. And you get to pick up 100 or 300 smoothing planes to find the one that speaks to you.
