[New post] I earned my “Stick Chair Merit Badge” and other minor woodworking.
James Stewart posted: " For any of you who grew up pre-internet you likely have memories of browsing through magazines or comic books and coming across offers to earn an award for some minor bit of effort (or $) on your part and all too often the reward received may not have me" Stewart Woodworks
For any of you who grew up pre-internet you likely have memories of browsing through magazines or comic books and coming across offers to earn an award for some minor bit of effort (or $) on your part and all too often the reward received may not have met your imagined expectations. My own generation likely grew up with promises of highly entertaining "Sea-Monkees" in the advertisements in the back of comic books, that turned out to be boring freeze dried brine shrimp .
Pop culture has many references to these kinds of offers and the excitement and hilarity that results from the "Leave it to Beaver" episode "The Perfume Salesmen" where the Beav and Wally sell perfume door to door to earn a promised movie projector (and their Dad's sly replacement of the faulty "projector" with a real one to avoid their disappointment). To the scene from "A Christmas Story" where the father wins a "Major Award" in the shape of a leg lamp to the horror of his wife.
My excitement this week was for a much smaller but very meaningful award that came in the mail yesterday. For those of you who are regular readers of Chris Schwarz and "Lost Art Press" you know that Chris runs an amazing business in woodworking books, but he's also an amazing and funny writer and talented craftsman. You really should be reading his blog regularly and then order some of his books. He really is keeping woodworking books alive by re-printing lost books from years gone by as well as creating a place for new authors.
Chris is also an unabashed fan of vernacular "Stick Chairs". His fascination started with Welsh Stick Chairs but he's written volumes on the craft and teaches how to make them. So, recently as one of his fun larks he offered a "Stick Chair Merit Badge" to anyone who made a stick chair with their own hands. But his rules were quite specific.
File photo from Lost Art PressFile photo from Lost Art Press
Both of the examples above are from Chris Schwarz. The one on the left is the quintessential Stick Chair or at least Chris' modern interpretation. Typically they have a high comb back. But the one on the right is anatomically the same except minus the high back and is often referred to as a low back. In their original form Stick chairs are literally made of sticks, you might even select bent sticks or tree limbs to cut the curve of the back out of. Modern stick chairs (mostly) use the same joinery techniques but with straight(er) parts.
Here's how to get your merit badge – one to a customer. Please read carefully.
Build a stick chair with your own hands. (Not a frame chair, ladderback chair, Windsor/Forest chair, IKEA chair, folding chair etc.) A genuine, vernacular stick chair. (Edit: A stool without a back is not a chair. A backstool, which is essentially a side chair, is indeed a chair. I deem that to be a "chair," the thing needs a backrest.)
Take a picture and print it out on any paper.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) to us with the picture of your stick chair. Here's how to address the envelope:
Stick Chair Merit Badge Lost Art Press 837 Willard St. Covington, KY 41011
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So here was my dilemma - I have really, really "wanted" to build a full sized stick chair. I really do LOVE the form. But so far I have yet to do so. Excuses range from space, to other chairs, but mostly space. But I just haven't gotten around to it yet........ Or maybe I had?
Last year I built a small rocking horse for our Granddaughter Rafaella and I wanted it to have a low seat with a back to support her so I decided to build in in stick chair fashion copying Chris' most common design elements like the back, the sticks that support the back and I even built the back doubler of three pieces like he describes and with the same arm and comb details in the doubler. So I figured - why not?
Pictures of the Rocking Horse Stick Chair I made Rafaella are essentially teh same as teh low-back stick chair.
So last week I sent Chris a self addressed envelope of the Rocking Horse Stick Chair with the explanation that by his definition it was definitely a stick chair variant - it's vernacular, I built it with my own hands, it had sticks and a back with holes drilled for the legs. And even though it was child sized that shouldn't count against it. The only addition were rockers and a horse's head - so if anything I added to the complexity.
And yesterday I received my "Stick Chair Merit Badge" and even though it's the simplest thing, it makes me very, very happy sewn on my nasty old shop apron. It's a ridiculously silly thing, and it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I love that there are still people like Chris Schwarz who challenge us and reward us.
Other than that woodworking is a bit slow right now on new projects since I just finished the Alex Grabovetskiy carving class at Mark Adams School of Woodworking.
This week I did finish three small shaker oval boxes and I cut up pieces for another 7 more.
Three new shaker oval boxes and parts for seven more.
I also bought two used older woodcarving books on line to see if I am still interested in woodcarving after Alex's class.
The first book "High Relief Wood Carving" by William J. Schnute (published 1985) is a good book from the perspective of a professional woodworker in the later part of teh 20th century. Mr. Schnute is quite obviously an accomplished carver and many of his pieces adorned the massive doors of private homes and churches, but he also did signs and boxes. A good book, but not as instructional as I may have hoped.
From the book "High Relief Wood Carving"
The second book "Manual of Traditional Wood Carving" by Paul Hasluck is a reproduction of a book called "Cassels Wood Carving" (published 1911) is a fascinatingly detailed carvers bible from the very early 20th century. This book is actually quite good in terms of instructional examples. And while I am still looking for a project that would meet my aesthetic that would benefit from some carving I found it humorous that what they refer to as "modern" carving is right at the sweet spot of the furniture era that I do find very appealing.
From teh book "Manual of Traditional Wood Carving". I particularly liked this low relief flower panel that could go well in an Arts and Crafts piece of furniture.
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