Artistic Freedom and Rocking Chairs

I put my heart & soul into everything I build. When I build a piece on commission, my attention to detail can be described as "obsessive". Not only do I have my customer in mind through the entire process, I have my customer's grandchildren in mind because what I build will be passed down through generations. Thus, I chronically underestimate the amount of time I'll spend on a project. Once I get into it, it becomes my obsession until it's perfect. I wake up in the middle of the night because I’ve literally dreamed up some detail I want to tweak or new method I want to try. When I’m given artistic freedom I go above and beyond. The pressure is on me to make something that doesn’t simply satisfy the customer, it becomes a centerpiece of their home. I want them to tell stories to their grandchildren of where that chair came from because it is so uniquely beautiful and perfect.

With that in mind, here’s the story of a rocking chair. The task was to build a rocking chair, but I was given artistic freedom. I specialize (by choice!) in using locally available wood and wood I harvest myself. So I immediately thought to build primarily with diamond willow. I’ve previously built a couple chairs from diamond willow, incorporating a shaker tape weave for the seat. Adapting those designs into a chair that rocks would be incredibly challenging and rewarding. The rest of the story is captured in photos.

A rocking chair is shown, laying on its side rather than in the typical position.

I didn't follow anyone else's plans. But I did spend Christmas break examining every rocking chair I could: rocker radius, height of seat, splay of the rockers...

A preliminary sketch of a rocking chair is shown, along with a bending form and a box used for steam-bending green wood.

My initial plan was to build rockers using bent lamination- so I spent a day building a bending form to the correct radius. I also thought I'd be steam-bending willows. Maybe on the next chair though! I wasn't sure what angles and bends I would need. So instead I designed a chair with a solid sculpted wood seat. That way I could separately determine the angles of everything above the seat and below the seat.

8 foot long slab of willow. Harvested from a standing dead tree- killed by wildfire.

Three pieces of wood are shown, lined up prior to being glued together in order to create a chair seat.

Building a seat blank by cutting a tree into smaller parts and gluing them back together.

Willow seat blank ready to be cut to shape at the bandsaw

Collage of four photos. Stepwise progression of sculpting a contoured wooden seat from a thick block of wood.

I actually built 2 rocking chairs for this project. One of them from a variety of wood species (pine, willow, hackberry) as the trial chair in order to practice techniques and work out angles and dimensions before proceeding to the real thing. Here's the seat blank for chair #1, from pine.

Plywood cut in the shape of a chair seat. Several holes drilled through the plywood in a pattern to indicate depth when sculpting the seat.

Roadmap for making a rocking chair seat.

A sculpted seat blank is shown, along with a ruler and compass.

Thinking hard about where to put the arms and back, and at what angles.

Several seats are shown- one being a template, one made of pine, and one made of willow.

From template, to practice, to the real thing.

Snowshoes, a saw, and a few portions of branches.

Taking a "break" to get some fresh air, enjoy Wyoming, and harvest willows that could become furniture in future years.

A pile of willow branches, bark removed. Various diameters and lengths.

Willows I've harvested in previous years. Now dry enough to potentially be incorporated into this rocking chair.

The woodworker is shown holding up a piece of wood while considering whether to incorporate it into the chair.

Trying out some angles, placements, and design elements on the first chair.

A block of wood. 4 feet long by 2 inches thick by 16 inches wide. Willow.

I'm going back to what's left of the initial 8 foot slab of willow in order to build the headrest and arms.

Again, cutting wood apart in order to glue it back together, to cut it apart again.

A rocking chair is shown, sitting on top of a table. The rocking chair has no legs.

Starting to look like a chair

Getting creative with the bandsaw to get consistent contours on each end of the headrest.

A two-photo collage showing the top and bottom sides of a bent-lamination form.

Doing a dry-run of the bent-lamination rockers. Is this really going to work?

Planing walnut down to 1/8" so every piece of the rockers is consistently thick with no gaps.

Numerous wood clamps are shown on a bent-lamination form.

Putting as many clamps as I can fit onto this bending form. Every clamp I own, and borrowing several from a friend.

Several pieces of scrap wood are shown, with a repeating honeycomb pattern drilled into them.

Making cherry and walnut plugs from scrap wood.

A woman sits in a rocking chair, she appears to be deep in thought.

Test driving chair #1. Height? Rockiness? Determining what should be improved for chair #2.

Walnut makes a nice accent to willow. So I'm embedding walnut cross-grain under the seat to help with support. It will also look really cool.

Trying out different leg lengths and placements with simple dowels before moving on to diamond willow.

2 blue-stained pine slabs, over 8 feet long sit side by side in the woodshop.

What is this? Oh- a cameo appearance by an upcoming project that has nothing to do with chairs.

A spokeshave is pulled along the edge of a bent-laminate rocker, resulting in a handful of fine wood shavings.

Taking the sharp edges off the rockers with handtools.

The chairmaker's mark is shown on the underside of the chair along with labels for telling which side of the chair is left versus right.

Maker's Mark. Looking at the bottom of the seat... so upside-down and backwards.

Detail shot of diamond willow legs and braces. Walnut plugs hide screwheads and serve as an accent.

The back of a chair is shown, with a shakertape weave in progress.

The early stages of weaving the Shakertape backrest.

Looking down towards the seat of a rocking chair in order to see details in the shakertape backrest and the complementary colors of the wood and the cotton webbing.

The vision has come together.

A rocking chair in a living room. Natural light coming through the windows.

Willow rocking chair with shakertape backrest

Willow rocking chair with walnut accents and Shaker tape backrest. Bent laminate rockers of walnut, cherry and maple. $2250