author profile w/ Lost Art Press

Kara Uhl recently interviewed and wrote an author profile about me for the LAP website. It’s kind-hearted and generous, and I’m grateful she put it together. You can find the piece here.

Mortise & Tenon Magazine podcast

I recently conversed with Mike and Joshua of Mortise & Tenon Magazine on their handwoodworking-focused podcast. We discussed the Appalachian methods of chairmaking found within Backwoods Chairmakers, the strength of the tradition, and how chairmaking endures. Thanks to Joshua and Mike for welcoming on. I think you’ll enjoy it if you enjoy the combination of perserverance and woodworking.

Find it (and all M&T podcasts) here.

a little more about the book…..

hosting Live Wire

I’ll be fielding woodworking questions the Lost Art Press blog tomorrow . Stop in for a few minutes to ask a question about a woodworking issue or inquire about the stories and methods found in Backwoods Chairmakers. It’ll start at 7 and I’ll wrap up around 5pm.

movement within tradition

At one point in my career, I figured furnituremaking fell into different silos. There was traditonal furniture or contemporary work. Art or craft. Chair making vs benchwork. Industry vs amatuer. Rural work vs that created in centers of fashion. I envisioned clear differences between each group (mostly stereotypes I put on the work….stereotypes of both the work I understood and the work I didn’t [the art world being one]). There are differences between these groups, both in motives and objectives and intentions. But as I approach somewhere in the middle of my career as a furnituremaker, I’m finding this paradigm inaccurate. These categories overlap at times, and I find interesting work being done in that overlap.

The basketry of Jennifer Zurick comes to mind. Traditon. Art. Contemporary. Craft. I don’t know how to define it….nor should I try to. I’m simply thankful it exists, and that I, at times, get to experience and learn from it (I came across it more frequently when we lived in Berea, KY…..now I hope it comes to exhibitions at the Messler Gallery from time-to-time).

I also think of the work of one of my teachers from my training at the North Bennet Street School- Lance Patterson. His work is within tradition but is not a copy. It has his thoughtfulness, his touches, and his choices throughout. It’s a new object, even if the form is familiar.

I think of that approach frequently as I work within the green woodworking tradition. I’m not breaking new ground as I woodwork- nor am I attempting to. I’m focused on good work and making the few different chairs that are stuck in my head and wanting to be made. The lounge chair is one of these chairs. I see the Appalachian chairmaking tradition in it (hickory bark and shaved octagons). I’ve spent the last five years immersed in that impressive traditon while working on ‘Backwoods Chairmaker,’ though I’m not an Appalachain chairmaker myself, so it is only fitting that it flavors my work. I’m excited with how this first version of the lounge chair turned out and I have parts ready to bend for the next one (something just a smidge wider and lower on version 2.0). This is what excites me in the morning and gets me into the shop before I eat a breakfast.

Preorders open for ‘Backwoods Chairmakers’

My first book, Backwoods Chairmakers: The Search for the Appalachian Ladderback Chairmaker, is now available for preorder through publisher Lost Art Press.

The book is the story of finding and visiting chairmakers working in the old traditions throughout central Appalachia.  I was welcomed into their shops to interview and photograph them at work.  I've written the stories with the woodworker in mind when sharing about the chairs, their methods and processes, and each chairmaker's approach.  Beyond the woodworking, the chairmakers share how they got into it and why they chose this life.  They share what's worked for them in chairmaking (and what hasn't).  

The book is a compilation of stories, hundreds of photographs, chair dimensions and details, along with techniques.  It concludes with two builds - a side chair and a rocker - where the reader can build their chair.

Foreword written by Curtis Buhanan.  Preordered purchases receive a PDF copy of the book.  "Backwoods Chairmakers" is expected to ship at the end of December or early January.

Teaching in Rollinsford

It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I’m just starting to think through the week at Peter Galbert’s Chair Shop in the Mill Buildings of Rollinsford, NH. Six students worked for six days on a greenwood ladderback chair. Pete’s usually making Windsor chairs in his space, which made it an ideal space to build the ladderbacks.

There’s always a wild card when teaching - some sort of a surprise that requires quick adaptation. For our class it centered around the bark. It was scheduled to arrive early in the week, but didn’t make it to us until noon on the last class day. Within an hour of receiving it we were weaving it into the chairs (our backup plan - weave in a nylon strapping seat as practice - was thankfully dismissed once we received the bark).

The class picture was taken directly before weaving in the bark seat since a person or two usually heads out early on the last day. And the front post remain long until it’s time to finish the chair.

Handworks ‘23

I got back home from the long drive to the Amana Colonies in central Iowa and the whilwind that is Handworks about one week ago. If you’re unfamiliar, Handworks is a hand tool woodworking festival that celebrates all things around the craft. Most of the “vendors” were small business, many that make hand tools. Others were booths sharing educational opportunities, publishers, woodworking non-profits, and used tool vendors. The event was hosted by Benchcrafted, a workbench & work holding company that is owned and opperated by the Abraham family (this was the fourth or fifth Handworks that FJ and Jameel have put on). Benchcrafted is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, about 20 minutes from Amana. The Abrahams invited the woodworking community into their neighborhood and handled the monumental task of organizing 80 vendors and a festival for a few thousand people.

I shared a booth space with Matt Bickford of Connecticut, maker of beautiful molding planes. We were an odd couple - molding planes and green wood chairmaking - but we complimented each others’ work well. At times, during the height of the show, Matt had a dozen people watching him demonstrate how to properly use the planes. It was a joy to see him work - demonstrating the tools, putting them in interested people’s hands, and sharing his craft. That was the spirit of the show - to share the craft with everyone in attendance. Along with sharing the craft, this was a place for me to shake hands and thank people I’d worked with, and admired, through the internet but had not connected with before beyond a screen. The weekend was designed to connect people, in a beautiful place, with woodworking and tool making as the commonality.

I haven’t taken part in a festival like this before and am already excited for the next one. Thank you, FJ and Jameel, for making it happen.

Picture taken and shared by Handworks volunteer Matt Swiderki. Matt graciously covered my booth, and answered questions about chairmaking, at points when I needed to step away.

book update

Backwoods Chairmakers is currently going through the editing process with the publisher, Lost Art Press. If it comes together as planned, the book will be out by the end of 2023.

Lost Art Press recently introduced it on their blog. We still have a ways to go - final editing, book design and layout, etc. - but it’s getting closer and may be here before we have snow on the ground.

uniformity and individuality

The more chairs I make, the more they both look similar to one another yet still have unique characteritics. They show my hand and my design choices. Years back, after reading the writings of chairmaker John Brown, I was confused by his mention that he’d wait until his chairs were built before judging their quality. In essense, he wasn’t sure if he’d like the chair until it was made. I thought, how could he not know along the way?

John didn’t work with patterns, and he changed/refined his details with each chair, as his experience and preferences changed. John constantly changed his design decisions for a given chair, changing the back stick lengths change the look, as do different rake and splay angles below a seat, or the detailing on a crest. Then there’s always the challenge of craftsmanship during a build, though the perils of an unsuccess build lessen with experience (but don’t all together go away).

I’ve thought more of John Brown recently as I’ve built rocking chairs, and documented the rocker build for Backwoods Chairs. Each rocker I build is slightly different….different detail choices, different execution, along with the inherent imprecision of green woodworking, and it leads to a slightly different chair each build. And I like spontaneity in making. It’s something I love about chairmaking. I find that design is not static but a moving target which changes with each chair. Something as minor as a 1/4” difference in the flair of the upper back posts makes a decided difference in the feel of the final chair. And sometimes I don’t know how the chair will work, or how I’ll like it, until I put the final coat of finish on it and step back to take it all in. That’s when I believe I know what John’s talking about with chair design. The chair has a character of it’s own. Sometimes I like one I’ve built more than another. What’s interesting is that guests to my shop often choose different chairs as their favorites, making this seemily a subjective exercise.

I’ve embraced this aspect of nonconformity with my rockers. Each one still chases the “ideal” chair I have in my mind, and I hope that doesn’t change with time. Though I suspect at some point I will have chased after every possible change, tested each variable and refined the chair to the point that I cannot think of any way to improvement. This is theory, of course, since it’s a point miles away into the future. But I hope reach it some day.

chair shop open house; august 5th

I’m hosting an open house on Saturday, August 5th, from 9 am - 2 pm. Please stop by, take a rock in one of the chairs, and converse about furniture making. The shop has seen a substantial transformation since I started working under the single light and in the open framing. I’ll be demonstrating throughout the day - working on a chair in the morning, then weaving a hickory bark seat in early afternoon.

Shop address: 416 Manktown Road, Waldobor, ME 04572

Everyone is welcome - neighbors, customers, and woodworkes alike. My shop is about two miles from the Lie Nielsen shop (though they’re closed on Saturdays). I’m located a little north of Waldoboro Village, just off coastal Route One. There will be drinks and snacks at the shop, and there are more robust and delicious options all around.

For anyone traveling into the area, there are craft opportunities throughout the midcoast. The Good Supply, a barn converted into gallery space in Pemequid, showcases a collection from local artists and craftspeople. Eric McIntyre of Village Handcraft in Wisscasset (“the prettiest village in Maine”) makes hearty brooms and crisply carved green wood pieces - bowls, spoons, & spreaders - all from his beautiful gallery/shop. And I have two suggestions for anyone who enjoys woodworking hand tools. I’m located 30 minutes from Liberty Tools, and the treasure hunt for used tools that makes it so special. There’s an opposite experience a little south of Waldoboro at the Shelter Institute in Woolwich. Shelter carries a large assortment of new tools - high quality furniture, green woodworking, and timber framing tools - along with natural finishing supplies and a full assortment of Lost Art Press books.

I hope you can make it. Send along a message if you have any questions about the day or about the midcoast. Hope to see you August 5th!

adding rocker blades

This video won’t win an Emmy, but at just a little over a minute, it shows the process I follow when adding rocker blades to a chair.

It’s mostly handwork, which I enjoy and gives me control of things along the way, and this entire procedure is around an hour or two in total. Plenty of other chairmakers utilize the router here, and I may get there eventually, but I’m still adapting the design and the critical steps. Plus I don’t like making fixtures until the final design is determined. Hand work provides a thorough understanding of the process and is adaptable, before going about mechanizing things.

The most awkward part of the entire process is clamping the chair solidly while sawing and removing the waste. The rest of it is fitting and fine tuning the blades until they are in alignment. The dowels are necessary for durability.

I enjoy this piece of making the chair and am not yet ready to share it with a router. I’ll get there eventually.

the drawknife

I wrote a short piece for Highland Hardware about the drawknife and shave horse a few years back, intended for someone interested in picking up the tool. It’s an incredibly simple tool - just a large blade with handles - but is intimidating for makers who have yet to use it. It seems dangerous, being firmly pulled towards one’s chest, but that danger is mitigated by technique.

If you are unsure of the correct drawknife to purchase, you can’t go wrong picking up a straight blade, 8” model. I prefer handles to knobs, but to each their own. The key, with any model, is sharpness and slicing through the workpiece.

Backwoods Chairs

I started this project in 2019, as an idea with my publisher Lost Art Press, and it’s slowing built to this point. The book is nearing the editing and design phase, where it becomes a real thing. I plan to share more here in the coming months and on the LAP blog. Stories of chairmaking, perserverance, longevity, gratitude, stuggles, and beuty.

I loved making this book over the past four years. It took me down lanes and to places I’d only imaged, or read about elsewhere. Focused on the traditions of Central Appalachia, the book is a search for the remaining ladderback chairmakers working from the old ways.

Below are a few of the images we’re considering for a promotional poster, which gave me an opportunity to revisit a couple of my favorites from the travels.

Newberry and Sons. Red Boiling Springs, TN

Chairmaker’s Workbench. Floyd County, KY

Porch view. Jackson County, KY

Pine Croft.

The following message went out to the Pine Croft followers this afternoon. It’s a short read and (hopefully) captures my gratitude towards leading the school the past four years.

The news of the month is that I’m stepping away as the head of Pine Croft. There’s nothing bitter about any of it... only sweetness.

As many of you know, our family moved from Berea back to Maine a couple years ago. As a result of that move, I have coordinated things from a distance and have returned for course sessions at the school. I love doing it; it’s a joy to return to Berea for classes, and there are familiar faces I can’t wait to see around town and at the school. But the approach is limiting to Pine Croft and taxing on a family. 

Which makes the upcoming leadership change so satisfying. Two Bereans—Rob Spiece and Katie Bister ’23—will take over things at the woodworking school. Rob brings extensive experience running classes during his years at the Lohr School of Woodworking in Pennsylvania. He runs Woodcraft at the College and will head the efforts at Pine Croft starting in July. He generously shares his skills, knowledge and his carefully curated glue-up soundtracks with his students. Katie graduated from Berea College in May with an extensive craft background, both through her personal practice along with her focus on woodworking as a major and as the student shop manager within Woodcraft. You likely met Katie if you took a class at Pine Croft over the past couple of years. She’s been a fixture around the school. Now she’ll share her knowledge and you may see her on the schedule before too long.  

You’ll notice new developments with Rob and Katie in place. The most apparent is the increased schedule, with classes nearly every month, with more guest instructors and a wider range of offerings, from traditional hand tool courses to contemporary projects. There are more changes in the works, but I’ll let Rob and Katie share them when they fully introduce themselves in the coming months.  

As for me, I’ll be back to teach at Pine Croft in the coming seasons. I plan to return for more chair making and hickory bark harvesting. There’s plenty on the horizon. I have furniture commissions on my workbench, a book to finish (Backwoods Chairs with Lost Art Press), middle school soccer to coach, and an old house to restore.

I’m thankful for my time with Berea College and at Pine Croft. Running the school wasn’t always easy, though it was always good work. I felt pressure following Kelly Mehler behind the lead bench, in the shop and school he created, but I felt nothing but encouragement from him. And I felt encouragement from you all through notes and emails, through kind words, the class suggestions, the tool donations, through hard work, mishaps, and laughter.  

Thank you for your generosity and kindness during my time at Pine Croft.  

I think you’ll love getting to know Rob and Katie.

Warmly,

Andy Glenn

About Rob & Katie

Rob Spiece has been Director of Woodcraft at Berea College since December 2021 and will be succeeding Andy Glenn as Director of Pine Croft beginning July 1, 2023, unifying the Woodcraft and Pine Croft Director positions.

Katie Bister ’23 is a graduate of Berea College with a degree in Engineering, Technology, and Applied Design. Katie worked in Berea’s Student Craft program all four years serving as Student Manager of the wood shop during her junior and senior years. She will join the Pine Croft Team as Pine Croft Manager beginning June 19, 2023.