I don't want to make A chair

When I set out to make my first chair, it was a trip into the wilderness. Strange tools and techniques were the means, but when I came to the destination, I found far more questions than answers. Chairs are endless in their variation and after a short while, I realized that I wasn’t just interested in making one successful chair, I wanted to know the underpinning of how chairs work and why. I didn’t want to make A chair, I wanted to be able make any chair that I could imagine.

Sure, I could simply refine a single design through multiple iterations until it was comfortable, attractive and repeatable to build, but looking back, I can see that for me, the goal was elsewhere. I spent a long time examining chairs, building chairs and trying to get to the heart of what makes them work.

Rocking chairs certainly add a layer of complexity and early on, I realized that my process was too hit and miss, with a lot of fussing to get the thing to rock properly. I needed a language that would allow me to analyze existing rockers and confidently build imagined ones.

Here is the result of a recent design class that I taught with Aspen Golann. We focused on making rocker and used the techniques that I describe in the video below to hit the mark. I thoroughly enjoyed putting the “language” of rockers to the test with a rather eccentric design. The prototype, made of 2”X4”s and plywood still sits in my shop because it’s so damn comfortable

I love this chair, it’s all there