My former Sister-Outlaw, now In-Law, Jo wanted to commission a chair from me. I didn’t want to get into commercial chair making but was more than glad to oblige. We agreed a price and I gave the money to Westonbirt Woodworks’ Bursary Scheme, in exchange for a seat blank, two rockers, a bent comb and bow, and some fresh logs. The chair was made at home and was the second that Stephen and I co-operated on. In their warm house, the sticks did shrink a bit after delivery, but my brother easily remedied that with some fresh glue. With hindsight I think we used too little glue in the first place.
In the way of our developing arrangement, Stephen turned the sticks that didn’t have bark on them and came up with the idea of planing them after turning to make that flattened shape.
I used the same technique as for previous chairs, cutting the ends off the bow, sticking them to the side and then shaping to make a pleasant curved shape on the arm end.
You can see more detail in this example from the New Zealand chair.
