Vive le Différence

This last week, Andy Glenn was in my shop teaching his 207 chair to Kieran Kinsella.

It was a eye opener and reminder about the variety of techniques and goals that exist in woodworking. I’m a huge fan of both of these woodworkers and the discussions rolled on and on.

Kieran and Andy (on the right)

Andy is a graduate of the North Bennet Street school and has a vast swath of experience from green wood and cabinetry to fine furniture. Most recently, he toured the back roads of Appalachia to learn about the ladderback chair makers still operating using long practiced methods of their forebearers.`He wrote the results in his excellent book “Backwoods Chairmakers” from Lost Art Press. I don’t know anyone better than Andy to coax the stories from the somewhat insular and hesitant makers he interviewed. He is as unassuming as they come, but truly thoughtful and capable of translating the stories with the complexity intact. As I said, Andy’s path through fine furniture and then ladderback (and Windsor) chairmaking came via deep exploration of many approaches. Deep training in any pursuit can easily lead to dogma and an over focus on the correctness of technique, rather than results. Andy hues to a very low tech approach to chair making that seems to have unleashed his creativity. I experienced something similar when I stopped believing that the point of being a woodworker was to be able to do everything and chose limited technique to practice and forms to explore.

Like Andy, Kieran is another great example of applying oneself to certain starting points and somewhat limited arsenal of techniques. I have been a fan of his work for years. I’m sure I’ve mentioned I am not naturally drawn to much woodwork. Most of it doesn’t pass my garage sale test. As a reminder, the garage sale test is a game I play to help me ascertain the impact of a piece out of context. Would I stop dead in my tracks and garage sale and buy the object in front of me for $75 (it’s gone up with inflation from $50). Kieran’s work is a slam dunk for the garage sale test. I find myself constantly pulling out my phone to show people his work. Here are a few examples.

Do yourself a favor and visit his website and instagram (@kierankinsella). His feel for form and the material is delightful. Kieran comes to his craft from a different direction than Andy or myself. Before embarking on his sculptural pieces, he worked in woodworking, but mostly in timberframing, which might explain his draw towards working larger pieces of wood. What I found most fascinating about his approach, was his “whatever it takes” attitude for getting what he wants. He imagines and lays out his form and then goes at it with a full arsenal of tools and operations. He seems to have no attachments about the “right” tools or best practices. He is very humble, curious and straight forward. I found it incredibly refreshing. Let’s face it, there is a lot of “blah blah blah” about the right way to do things, but it’s often in the service of “correctly” made, but underwhelming objects. Kieran’s work is just the opposite, the mystery of how he gets there is fine to leave alone, the objects speak for themselves. This puts everything in the right order, chew your way to the results if that’s what it takes. I’d much rather know what I want to make and have no idea how to do it than to have all the tools and techniques at my fingertips and have no connection to the results. I am excited to visit Kieran in his element someday and peek a bit behind the curtain, but for now, it’s just magic.

During the class, I kept noticing moments where the partially assembled chair parts became fun sculptures on their own.

For those following the shop progress, I am happy, relieved and somewhat shell shocked to say the barn/workshop is basically done. Here is the front all sheathed and doored up.

My friend Chris Kerr-Ayer got the loft above the benchroom all sheathed. I’m thinking of installing a bowling alley.

I know, I’ll probably fill it with crap, but I’m going to try my best not to. Most importantly, George is loving the new digs.

photo by Andy Glenn

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In the next posts, I’ll be diving back into selecting and processing kiln dried boards for chair parts.