I’m still infatuated by the thought of taking a walk in the woods and harvesting a curved branch that becomes the arms around which a chair is built. So far I have not managed to do that. Most of my walks in the woods happen in parks and other public land where cutting trees or branches is not a great idea. Despite this I recently did have a chance encounter with curved grain. It happened at a Woodworker’s Guild wood sale a couple of months ago. There were two Garry Oak slabs lying around which at first glance looked pretty ugly. But on closer inspection I saw that they had arm-shaped curving grain. So I bought the slabs, brought them home, cut one slab up and made an arm bow: the start of another chair.

This chair was inspired by a couple of recent favourites. I liked the angled back sticks of Greg’s chair which was based on a chair by Chris Williams). And I liked the welcoming look of the 5-stick chair that I built last year (now at home with friends Charlene and Rob in Silverdale). So I was thinking about a chair with five back sticks which gradually moved closer together toward the top of the chair. Both chairs were finished following John Porritt’s belligerent method and I was hoping to do the same with this chair.

We are lucky to have some wonderful art by our friend Lyndia. One of her gibbous moons floats serenely in our living room. Lyndia and I have been discussing chairs lately and I knew from the start that this chair would be for her. Our conversation continued as the chair took shape. She particularly liked this picture of the first attempt to line up the back sticks.

Assembly went reasonably smoothly, though as the chair was taking shape I decided to gently bend the back sticks so that they were a bit closer together at the crest. Not surprisingly, there are plenty of historic examples for this approach, and chairs shaped like this even have a name: lobster pot chairs.

Finishing was a bit nerve-wracking. It always is. I decided not to use ammonia on this chair and used aniline dye instead, that left me with a bit more blotching and uneven colour to deal with, but it spared me the joys of ammonia gas. It all worked out in the end.

Garry Oak, Analine Dye, Pigmented Oil, Milk Paint, Linseed Oil Wax