Curved Carved Chair Construction Notes
Return to furniture page A major thunderstorm blew through Pittsboro in July, 2005, and one tragic loss was an ancient oak tree growing on a hilltop just south of town. The family had reared six children under that tree; at least one couple was married there. They had known the tree was at risk; major damage appeared throughout the crown, and a local tornado finally proved too much. The tree fell. Fortunately, no-one was hurt and no other property damaged by the fall.
I was offered as much of the tree as I wanted. Initially, I was leery of oak--it's SO heavy! Because the tree grew in an open field, it had spread--and curved and twisted as each branch reached for all the light it could get. Normally, carvers work with straight logs, but there wasn't much straight on this tree until you got to the trunk, and that was too heavy to lift. I took two truckloads of branches, and thought about what I could make.
One afternoon, I sat on one of the logs I'd brought home
and looked at the pile. The log itself rocked gently, but the curve
was too tight to become the rockers of a chair. I thought, and rocked,
and thought and rocked some more, and decided to play a little bit.
The curved planks as they were cut from the log. The
one on the left has not been used because of the damage. It may yet
appear in a future piece, now that I've found a product to fill the hole
that leaves an attractive finish.
Several artists and woodworkers studied the chair at
the 2005 Studio Tour opening party; many understood the problems of
working in a material with no planes or right angles. Future
chairs will possibly be pegged, rather than screwed, if the problems of
aligning parts during assembly can be mastered. Lou Caragenis
suggested using some kind of padded surface for assembly; I'm now
looking for bean bags chairs!
The formal portrait: note the shadow under the seat
just behind the fork in the front legs--one leg is not visible in this
picture.