As you may have read in one of my earlier posts I’m currently making a staked high stool from The Anarchist’s Design Book by Christopher Schwarz but at the back of my mind I’m always thinking about what to make next. I know, I know, I should just focus on the project at hand and devote all of my attention to it, after all I do have a history of making silly mistakes when I take my eye off the ball!
But I just can’t help myself and I’m allocating brain time to mulling over which style of stick chair I should build next. I like the stick chair form and the Welsh stick chair is the one that everyone seems to be talking about at the moment.
Shamefully (given how close I live), it’s a few years since I last visited St Fagan’s Museum near Cardiff. The last time I was there I took lots of pictures which I use as a reference when considering a chair build. I look over the pictures time and time again but every time I’m time I’m taken in a different direction and left confused about the form I’d like to make. Welsh stick chairs are beautiful and the design is open to such a huge range of interpretation. I’ve made one and I love it but I want to build something different this time around.
It was while I was tidying the workshop today that I found the plans that I bought to accompany Chris Schwarz’s “The Stick Chair Book“, another excellent tome from the good folks at Lost Art Press. I laid the plans out on my bench and looked over the designs. I had previously discounted making the lower backed chairs as I didn’t particularly find the form pleasing. But the more I looked, the more I thought that maybe I’d been foolish in discounting these designs. I was starting to warm to the idea.
I went back to the house, grabbed my copy of The Stick Chair Book from the bookcase and flicked through the pages towards the back of the book which describe each of the designs as well as offering much needed (for me at least) hand-holding through the build process. I spent a good hour or so reminding myself of the chairs before realising that I was on the edge of a momentous decision and that a nice cup of tea was in order.
“I’m going to build a low-back chair” I proclaimed to myself. Now, which one to build? I was drawn to the visual simplicity of the Irish style stick chairs and after an extensive scouring of my books and the Internet I came to the conclusion that the style of chair that has come to be known as the “Gibson stick chair” was appealing . I wasn’t particularly taken with the Gibson’s design originally but as I studied it’s lines it really started to grow on me. I could see myself nestling down into it beside the hearth with a fire blazing away, a steaming mug of tea and good book in my hands.
My wife has the final say about any piece of furniture that makes it into the household so I sought approval and received the seal of approval far too easily. There’s still time for a change of plan but for now I think that the Gibson chair is the next project on the bench and I’m going to start looking around for some nice pieces of oak or perhaps ash.
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