The Mathilda Chair Part 4

Getting the joints smoothed out

The clamps came off and I set to work to get the sweeping lines that I hoped to flow across the whole chair.  The smooth lines will be a tactile feature for the baby, but also to give the impression of one piece of wood.  I think if it weren't for the crazy grain of this Olive Ash, it could possibly have had that effect.

This form needed plenty of sanding and careful chiseling.  The curves meant that the grain direction was changing at random spots all over the chair.  Here's the shape as it was before the final sand, still with its sharp, crisp edges.

Flowing curves before final sanding

And here's the chair all smoothed and sanded ready for that very exciting first coat of Danish oil.  We had been eagerly waiting to see how this dark Ash will oil up.  As expected the grain and dark colours jumped out at us.  Over time this chair will darken, and the markings may calm down a little.  A good bit of use (and a touch of baby dribble) will leave a wonderful matte finish.  The wonders of wood, it gets better and better with age.

I hope this little chair holds lots of fond, happy memories for its little owner.  May it serve her well.

The finished Baby Chair - before oiling

Curves and joint details - before oiling

The Baby Chair - oiling up

The Baby Chair - Complete

The Mathilda Chair Part 3

Things are coming together - taking a pause

Last time I left you with the arms practically finished.  Here's the main chair components put together on a dry run.  It's all coming together nicely, but I was getting anxious to smooth out the joints because that's when the flowing form will really shine.  Firstly, that form will really come from the addition of the back rest, from then on I can work away the overall form to make a comfortable seat.

All the straight edges went a long time ago, but I needed to squeeze the arm / backrest joint so that all the gaps closed up nicely.  Instead of clamps I had to use a peg.  The holes on either piece were off-set ever so slightly.  That way, when I tapped the peg in it pulled the joint into itself.  A handy little trick that worked really well.

Exposed tongue and groove joint with off-set pin

Now the fun part!  I love my power tools, it's a well know fact.  To chip out and carve the shape quickly I armed myself with a angle grinder with an Arbortech bit (and some noise-cancelling earphones and a bit of AC/DC) Needless to say, I was having a great time.

Armed with an Arbortech bashing out the sculpted form

I sanded and chiseled for the finer shaping.  However, once it was all glued up there was plenty more to be done as the smoothing out of the joints did alter the shape fractionally.

A little bit for fine tuning before gluing up

The Mathilda Chair Part 2

With the rough shape constructed, the overall form and flowing lines I had envisioned needed to be worked into the wood. Firstly, the rounded edges of the sides were a doddle with the use of a router, a little bit of spoke shaving and plenty of sanding.Small rails were made with through-tenons to help break up the look of the structural joint of the side. Through-tenons are also a wink to the Arts and Crafts ethos of deliberately exposed construction to demonstrate the piece is handmade. This is something I have noted local furniture manufacturers still do here in Sweden. (I'm on a wee trip away) Carefully housing the seat into the sides means it behaves structural and minimises any necessary dowelled joints that might distract from the flowing form.

Good bye corners

Right, the main part of the chair is pretty much there. Next, the exciting carving the general shape of the arms and back rest. To make sure both arms matched, it was vital that each major shape change was done at the same time on each side. Using 4 different sized chisels along the changing grain directions and a lot of rough grit sand paper the shape smoothed out slowly but surely. I have to say, the freedom of this process was a lot of fun.

Roughly hand carving the arms

Sanding and smoothing out the arm's shape

Carved arms stage 1 complete

Here it is, the arms and the sides. Where they meet, the joints will smoothly blend into each other, however that can only be done once it's glued up.

Flowing from arm to leg

The Mathilda Chair Part 1

The Mathilda Chair And now I can present to you my latest project, completed and delivered.

An ambitious curved form, designed to be a stylish first chair for a little baby girl.  The ergonomic positioning, and deliberate wide seat will make those first unaided lounge-y moments easier.

Here's the design to product process:

From Design to Product

And here's the story:

Not long ago, my client came to me with an idea.  It had been recently announced that there will be a brand new member of his family arriving, and wanting to welcome the little tyke into this exciting world, came to me to create something special.

After a good think, some chats and brain storms, it was decided that, as much as a high chair or cot or wooden toy will be helpful, it just wasn't special enough.  Nope, this baby needs something that will be exceptional and everlasting.  A memento to her first few years.

Taking note from her Scandinavia roots, and wanting to add a wee salute to the design, craft and material ethos of the region, I designed a scaled down lounge chair.  This design has unusual proportions for a child's chair, but I thought the low, reclined position would be ideal for those early stages of sitting.  In the brief arms were a must, so falling off was avoided. From this starting point I decided to take this opportunity to create something tactile, sculptural, as well as developing a unique chair structure.  A mini chair for a mini lady.

There was much discussion about the type of wood.  Traditionally, furniture of the era I took inspiration from would use dark timber with hardly any grain markings.  I guess as to not distract from the form.  However, being a wannabe British Wood Ambassador, making a wooden chair by hand, from local timber it made sense to scrap that thinking and go with what Cumbria had to offer.  About 20 miles away from the workshop, in Penrith, there was a pretty old Ash tree.  I never saw it being milled, as that happened some 2 odd years ago, however I can tell it was a slow growing old tree by its extraordinary colouring and grain markings.  Ash is usually pale in colour with high contrasting, uniformed grain.  The boards Huw helped me pick out were distinctly dark with an almost tiger print pattern.  It was stunning - Olive Ash it shall be!

I have to admit that I got a little carried away in the beginning.  I had never used a spindle moulder before and the possibility to make multiple, delicate forms one after another, bing, bang bosh, was too exciting to skip.  I bashed on with the seat form first; a flowing curved shape, laminated with biscuits.  Here's the jig:

Laminated seat from Spindle Moulder

There aren't many straight lines in the final piece, but you've got to start somewhere.  The tricky angled joints were glued up before any shaping was done, that way clamping was a touch easier.  A template and the good old trimmer bit on a router made the shaping of the sides quick, easy and matching.

From straight lines to sweeping curves

The basic components, ready for sculpting

So far so good, if not a little odd looking.  All of the components have been laminated and roughly shaped, from now on it's new territory.  The form from the drawings and model are only a guide, the sculpting and fine details will come from working and whittling away at the wood.

I'll stop here for now, pop back later for the next stage....

Boot Bench Part 6

Waxed and Oiled Dark Leather

Arriving at the workshop Monday morning I had a lovely big parcel to unwrap.  The leather had arrived and it was definitely well worth the wait.  A deep, dark brown, treated so it will age and texture very nicely over time.  With my lovely assistant, Frank, we set off cutting it down to 30mm strips.

It was pretty exciting to be using a very different material, with its very own quirks.  Cutting was fairly easy, but keeping the tension even so the strip remained the right width along the whole length meant precise, regular checks with the ruler and a firm hand down on the straight edge.

Cutting leather to strips

I wanted the strips and gaps to echo the dimensions of the rest of the bench, there is a 30mm theme throughout the piece.  Once the first leather ends were tacked on, evenly spaced, we were flying.  Poor Frank had to put all his strength into stretching the leather as taut as possible, while I hammered the tacks in.  Thanks to his help the rack is lovely and firm, ready for all the wellies its made to hold.

Stretching & weaving leather strips to bench rack

And there you have it... Project Boot Bench finished.

Just in time for the workshops exciting trip down to Birmingham NEC, where we will be exhibiting at the Grand Designs Live 7th - 9th October 2011.  It's all hands on deck for all the last minute bits and bobs for our stand.  If you happen to be in town, pop along and say hello, you can even see my Boot Bench in the flesh.

Oak Boot Bench w Leather rack

Oak Boot Bench w Leather rack_side view

Oak Boot Bench w Leather rack_rack detail

Oak Boot Bench w Leather rack_back view

Boot Bench Part 5

It was the week of the spoke shaver!  Blimey, two days spoke shaving the back rest.  Such a good workout, and when all goes well, hugely satisfying... A couple of templates were used as aids, but most of it is reliant on touch and look.  You would think that slogging away at some pretty tough oak for two days would put you off, but weirdly, the spoke shaver is currently my favourite hand tool.

Spoke shaving the back rest

Half way there

Another template was used to mark out the corner details.  Because the back rest is curved along its length, it needed a flat piece of wood as its base, so when I put it through the bandsaw I can guarantee a square cut to the rest of the bench.  More spoke shaving to get that lovely smooth finish, as well as the subtle transition from flat to rounded edge on the top and bottom of the back rest.

A quick dry fit and the curve and joints worked out OK.

Rounding off the corners and testing the fit

Gluing up the back rest

Now it was time for the nitty gritty finishing touches, as well as the happy job of clearing away all the MDF jigs that have been camped under my workbench.  All the screw holes have been plugged with that lovely dark Walnut... Oh Walnut!  It was an exciting week at the timber yard ... milling a big English Walnut, I'll post about that some other time...

firewood jigs and walnut plugs

So here it is.  All the finishing touches, cleaning up and final sanding done.  Here's the oiling stages.  Oak is one of the few types of wood I enjoy oiling.  The colour really deepens and develops a rich shimmer.  (Sycamore and with other the light woods, the grain comes out beautifully, but yellows in colour.)

Oiling up

Oiling is so satisfying

I had hoped to have finished it this week, but my leather never turned up.  So Monday - more oiling and, hopefully, adding the strips of dark leather.  Watch this space...

Boot Bench Part 4

Progress has been steady this week, the joints needed to attach the boot rack frame to the legs are very tricky.  Firstly marking on a round isn't the easiest thing, cutting straight and lined up joints on each leg adds another interesting dimension to it all.  The side legs were fairly straightforward with the aid of clamped guides; set fractionally smaller than the frame that will fit it, and some masking tape on the saw for the right depth.  Huw produced yet another unusual plane, used to eat out at a set depth.  A handy little tool that helped create some lovely clean joints.

The middle leg wasn't nearly as straight forward, but with a leap of faith and a stead hand, I got there in the end.  Because the housing was a fraction smaller than the rails, I used a smoothing plane to eek it into size one shaving at a time.

To tidy up the look I planed back the rail to the same angle as the legs.  I'm becoming a little obsessed with the sanding and finishing and couldn't resist another blitz with the 240 grit before fitting it all together.  Now it's all glued up, it's looking pretty smart.

Middle back leg and its tricky joint

Overall progress with rack frame

Now its time for the all important back rest.  Starting out by marking out the general shape and drilling the joints for the back spindles, the rest of the day was spent smoothing it out with a couple of spoke shavers.  Its going to be a long-haul getting a nice, smooth shape by hand... fingers crossed I'll get to a good result before my leather is delivered.

Smoothing out the basic shape of the back rest

Boot Bench Part 3

Where does the week go?  Things are really picking up pace on the business front, and my current project has really taken shape. This weekend also saw the first day of the workshops open studios exhibition.  If you haven't already done so, pop onto the C>art website and see all the other local Artists and Craftie-types that are opening their doors to the public.  Its an exciting time, that justifies all the hard work and dusty cleaning spree. (http//:www.c-art.org.uk)

So last week I had set up a jig for drilling the back-rest spindle holes into the seat.  All went well and I moved onto using the amazing big sander in the machine room to taper the seat ever so slightly across its width.  Planing the curved edge onto the front bottom of the seat took a while, but the shape is just as I wanted.

Shaping the seat

All the final prep was done for the through joints on the ends of each spindle.  Lovely English Walnut was kindly offered to me for use as wedges, which is going to really add a lovely contrast to the final piece.  I've been dreaming of making something with Walnut, it's such a beautiful, dark wood.  Very rarely does a Walnut tree pass through the timber yard, but when it does it gets quite a lot of attention.  I have my eyes on some, I must concoct a wonderful project to do it justice.

Wedged joints

A couple of dry runs, putting everything together the back-rest spindles have been fitted nicely.  Jig no. 6 was rustled up for the secret screw holes that will join these spindles to the seat.  Finally, an all-over fine finish sanding for all components before gluing up  (if this doesn't make any sense what so ever, all will be revealed...)

Final prep for gluing

And here we are...  glued up with wedges and all.  I also got the boot rack frame mortise and tenoned and glued up.  Which leaves a bit of cleaning up around the joints and phase 3 of the project to crack on with Monday morning.

Glued and wedged

Check out Huw's incredible sliding gate in the background.  It apparently weighs 300kg, is 80mm thick and beautifully finished.  You don't want that to fall on your toe!

Boot Bench Part 2

It's been a very busy week, crammed full of all sorts of important bits n bobs.  The boot bench progress is coming along steadily. The spindles all have a lovely finish now that I've sanded them with 120, 180 & 240 grit.  All the components are pretty much done, now it's time for the jigsaw puzzle of making them all fit beautifully together. Firstly, the holes for the dowelled joints.  A few jigs and drill supports needed to be made to make sure there was no tear on either side of the hole.  The holes obviously want to be lined up and square so my legs go in the same direction, quite a bit of time was spent centring and squaring up each spindle.  With a newly sharpened forester bit, I'm really happy by how they turned out.

Drill jig

After a little bit of sanding back and dry clamping up I had the essentials all in place and labeled.  This is the really exciting bit when you start to see the design come off the page and into the real world.  From this stage I can reassess the construction schedule, theres going to be a lot of bits and angles that must be glued up just right, at the right stage.

giant jigsaw puzzle

Last thing of the week, create Jig no.4 for the angled joints in the seat...  Looking forward to Monday

Jig no.4