Lost Art Press

Help a Struggling Author (Me)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

On most Sundays, we try to provide a non-commercial, thoughtful piece of writing, such as Nancy Hiller’s “Little Acorns.” This Sunday, however, I am interested in your thoughts.

I am finishing work on “The Stick Chair Book,” and it should be off to press in a few weeks. I’m working on the book’s “backmatter” – appendices, bibliography, acknowledgments etc. One of the sections I’d like to add is “Commonly Asked Questions” about chairmaking. This will be similar to the one in the back of “The Anarchist’s Workbench.”

If you are someone who is getting started in chairmaking, or is hesitant about diving in, I would like to hear the questions you have about the process. What aspects of chairmaking seem unclear, difficult or beyond your reach?

In general, I’m looking for questions that are fairly broad. If you ask me about how to drill the sticks for a hoop-back Forest chair (aka Windsor) with a 1/4” Gramercy spoon bit, that’s not something I can use in the book (or even answer, except to say: Ask Mike Dunbar).

Some of the common questions I get include:

Do I need green wood to make a chair?

How do you figure out all the drilling angles for the legs and sticks?

What glue should I use?

Do I have to own a drawknife, adze and travisher to make chairs?

Are wooden chairs comfortable?

Why don’t chairs fall apart because of wood movement?

You can post your questions in the comments below. The comments will close on Friday, June 11. If you include your name with your comment, I will gladly credit you in the book. Thank you in advance for sharing your confusion.

— Christopher Schwarz

New (and Way Better) T-Shirts

Posted on by fitz

After dealing with the hassle and unreliability of print-on-demand tees for a few years, we’ve shifted gears big time. We figured it’d only be right to sell tees that reflect our values just as much as our chore coats, vests, hats and bandanas. That meant good materials and responsible domestic manufacturing.

Our new short-sleeve tees are a thick, tough 6.1-ounce jersey, tube-knit in the USA from domestically grown cotton. That’s about 50 percent heavier than your typical cheapo tee, and the tubular knit means no side seams to chafe and/or fall apart.

The tees are proudly Union-sewn in California. Our friend Mike does the printing at his farm in Oregon, and the quality of his work is exceptional – it’s a true discharge print, which means it’s flat to the fabric, rather than the plastic-y junk that sits proud (and eventually flakes off). These cost us a lot more than a conventional cheep tee, but we couldn’t be more proud of their quality and origin. We even added our own label to the neck.

Just one color and logo, for now. It’s a dark, dark navy with a very subtle charcoal logo. It seems to be damn near impossible to photograph, like all things in the black-on-black vein, but it sure looks perfect in person.

The fit is just ever-so-slightly slimmer than, say, a Hanes Beefy-T. Order your usual size, or a size up if you’re on the fence. Don’t worry, it’s not a slim hipster fit like American Apparel. Like most tees, these shrink a fair bit on the first wash. There’s a size chart on the product page that shows their measurements after a warm wash/warm dry – have a look if you’re still not sure.

— Tom Bonamici

Editor’s note: I have been wearing the living snot out of this T-shirt since we received our first samples. This shirt gets better and better with every wash. And it breathes nicely, even when I’m working hard at the bench. Kudos to Tom for finding the right shirt and the right people to make it. — Chris

Update: Dutch Tool Chest Book

Posted on by fitz

On Saturday, I sprayed two coats of lacquer on a small Dutch tool chest and its lower chest, then reinstalled the hardware. With that, I am done with the building and picture-taking thereof…I think.

I have a table of contents with chapters that cover the order of operations, and image folders tagged to each of those chapters. The images within each folder serve as a visual outline of what I need to cover in the text, and many of my pictures are simply visual notes – reminders of what I want to write – that won’t make it into the book.

By the end, I’ll have taught readers how to build two sizes of Dutch tools chest (with a choice of three lids), plus a lower chest on which to rest the small one (or the large one, if you’re tall), to make it easy to access the tools (as well as hold more). I’m offering several approaches to each operation when practical, so that no matter what the tool kit or skill set, readers should be able to find a method that appeals.

I’ve outfitted the interiors of both chests to hold chisels, marking knives and other pointy tools on the back wall. One has a saw till on the chest floor, the other has it behind the hanging rack. Both chests have cubbies for a jointer, jack and smooth plane (and suggestions for ways to tuck a block plane on the wall).

But as I wrote months ago, I’ve seen many clever modifications, drawers, racks, lift-out tills and more in similar chests over the years. And because I can’t possibly construct every possibility myself, I plan to feature some of those in a gallery (with credit, of course!) in the book. Many of you who’ve already built Dutch tool chests responded to my initial request for pictures, and I’ll be in touch with you soon (and thanks again!).

But I’d love to have more photos for the book. I’m looking for clever solutions to storing tools – digital images that are at least 300 dpi at 5×7. (Chris has a helpful post on photography here.) In short, I need in-focus pictures that show the relevant features without clutter or visual distractions. I realize not everyone can shoot these kinds of photos, so if quick phone snaps* are the best you can do, I’ll feature some of those in blog posts when the book comes out, which I hope is before the winter holidays. The deadline for photos is June 30, to fitz@lostartpress.com.

I’ll have this book written, designed and to my editor (that would be Chris) by July 30. So I’m signing off now to start writing far too many words, then excising as many adverbs and gerunds as possible.

— Fitz

* Note: If you have a late-model phone, it might be able to take pictures of a quality suitable for print.

New Book in the Works: The Nannau Oak

Posted on by Kara Uhl
An illustration in celebration of National Biodiversity Day by Elin Manon Cooper.

I first read about the Welsh Nannau Oak (also called the Strangling Oak; Derwen Ceubren Yr Ellyll, the Hollow Oak, Haunt of Demons; and the Skeleton Tree) while working on Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years. I was intrigued.

After months of thinking about it and doing a bit of research, I sent an email to Chris about the tree. Stories surrounding the oak involve murder. Ghosts. Witch hangings. Cursed objects.

I gave him some background on the tree and asked if there was any merit in doing more research for something unusual given the nature of the oak: an illustrated children’s book. My long email was followed by his short answer.

“Hell yes, this is cool.”

Fast forward to today.

After months of research, countless drafts and help from many fine people (all of which I’ll write about more in the weeks to come) I have finished the manuscript and am working on the storyboard. And now I am thrilled to say that Welsh illustrator Elin Manon Cooper has agreed to illustrate the book.

Elin Manon Cooper. Photo by Morgan Cartlidge.

Elin grew up in Cardiff, Wales, and currently travels between homes in Wales and Cornwall. She has a first-class BA Hons Degree in illustration from Falmouth University. Elin’s work “is often inspired by the natural world, folklore and folk traditions, particularly those Welsh and Cornish.” She has a passion for storytelling and she “aims to bring a sense of magic to the everyday, reflecting stories of the landscape, in a world that is often focused on the modern and material.”

Alban Eilir, the Spring Equinox. Illustration by Elin Manon Cooper.

Her work was recently featured as a Google Doodle in celebration of St. David’s Day 2021.

Our long-form illustrated children’s book is about Cadi, the daughter of a Welsh chairmaker – plus the Nannau oak and an acorn-shaped cup filled with spirits’ stories. Unlike Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” this oak fights back. But at its heart it’s about storytelling and the importance of truth, even when the truth seems scary.

I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

Newsstand Crimes

Posted on by Lost Art Press

A real phone call from about 2004.

Editor: “This is Chris.”

Caller: “Hi, uh, this is going to sound kind of weird. But I was digging in the dumpster at Barnes & Noble in my town, and I found about 20 copies of your magazine there – all with the covers ripped off.”

Editor: “Uh-huh.”

Caller: “I like your magazine, and I thought I’d let you know in case something fishy was going on. Like they were cheating you or something.”

Editor: “Nope. That’s perfectly normal.”

Caller: “That’s crazy.”

Editor: “Yup. When we send copies of our magazine to a bookstore or a newsstand, they sell what they can. Then they rip off the covers, mail those back to us and we credit their account for the unsold copies.”

Caller: “And then they throw away the rest?”

Editor: “Well, we wish they would recycle them, but yes.”

Caller: “And so if they threw away 20 copies, how many did they sell?”

Editor: “Well that’s the real crime. They sold maybe five or six copies. That’s typical for the industry. About 25 percent get sold, and the rest get thrown away or pulped.”

Caller: “That seems so wasteful.”

Editor: “Ha! That’s nothing. You should hear how we get new subscribers.”