Rocking chairs
A couple of YouTube videos
12 November 2014
I uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube on shaping the rocking chair headrest using a sori-ganna (compass plane) and a small hira-ganna. I hope you find them interesting.
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Rocking chairs and shoji - an update
06 September 2014
This is just a quick update on rocking chairs and shoji.
I’ve been granted the rights to sell Hal Taylor’s rocking chair book, back brace hole template, paper template set, and the three-disc DVD set to woodworkers in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, so a page covering that can be found here. With the exchange rate the way it is, these prices are very good, and for woodworkers in this part of the world, postage doesn’t require a new mortgage on the home. Sales are only available to woodworkers in Australia, NZ and Japan, though.
The next piece of info is that I’ve started putting pen to paper for my second dead-tree book. The title will be Shoji and Kumiko Design, Book 2, Beyond the Basics. It will include all the patterns in the Kindle books that weren’t in Book 1, plus a few additional square patterns. I’ll also move onto the diamond kumiko arrangement, and there are quite a few interesting and challenging patterns there as well. And I’ll also briefly touch on the mitsu-kude arrangement, and possible one or two simple patterns in that jigumi. I don’t have a time-frame for the book as yet, but I’m looking at sometime mid next year, fingers crossed.
In the meantime, please have a look around my restructured website. There’s a bit more info about kumiko and some of the tools, and of course, there’s the new section on rocking chairs.
Des
I’ve been granted the rights to sell Hal Taylor’s rocking chair book, back brace hole template, paper template set, and the three-disc DVD set to woodworkers in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, so a page covering that can be found here. With the exchange rate the way it is, these prices are very good, and for woodworkers in this part of the world, postage doesn’t require a new mortgage on the home. Sales are only available to woodworkers in Australia, NZ and Japan, though.
The next piece of info is that I’ve started putting pen to paper for my second dead-tree book. The title will be Shoji and Kumiko Design, Book 2, Beyond the Basics. It will include all the patterns in the Kindle books that weren’t in Book 1, plus a few additional square patterns. I’ll also move onto the diamond kumiko arrangement, and there are quite a few interesting and challenging patterns there as well. And I’ll also briefly touch on the mitsu-kude arrangement, and possible one or two simple patterns in that jigumi. I don’t have a time-frame for the book as yet, but I’m looking at sometime mid next year, fingers crossed.
In the meantime, please have a look around my restructured website. There’s a bit more info about kumiko and some of the tools, and of course, there’s the new section on rocking chairs.
Des
A new direction
18 July 2014
Over ten months since my last blog entry would have to be some kind of record.
Unfortunately, the minute and detailed kumiko work has played havoc on my eyes, and the eyestrain has got the better of me. The almost constant headaches were also starting to affect my enjoyment of woodwork.
So I’ve decided to branch out in a new direction — one that doesn’t involve quite as many small pieces of wood.
Making a rocking chair has always been on my bucket list, and rather than reinventing the wheel and trying to come up with my own rocking chair design, after I came back from Japan in 2009 I bought a set of plans from Hal Taylor, a well-known and long-time rocking chair maker in Virginia. He has been improving on his rocking chair design for over 20 years, resulting in extremely comfortable chairs that provide tremendous and highly flexible back support.
That’s what I have been doing for the past few months, and this is my latest chair. It is a small rocking chair, and is made from a single board of Queensland maple, with a silver ash feature strip in the rockers. It can’t be seen in the back braces, but they are laminated with a single Qld maple lamination in the front, two silver ash laminations in the middle, and a red cedar lamination at the back. They flex, and are able to move within their respective holes in the seat and headrest, and this provides the comfortable back support.
Unfortunately, the minute and detailed kumiko work has played havoc on my eyes, and the eyestrain has got the better of me. The almost constant headaches were also starting to affect my enjoyment of woodwork.
So I’ve decided to branch out in a new direction — one that doesn’t involve quite as many small pieces of wood.
Making a rocking chair has always been on my bucket list, and rather than reinventing the wheel and trying to come up with my own rocking chair design, after I came back from Japan in 2009 I bought a set of plans from Hal Taylor, a well-known and long-time rocking chair maker in Virginia. He has been improving on his rocking chair design for over 20 years, resulting in extremely comfortable chairs that provide tremendous and highly flexible back support.
That’s what I have been doing for the past few months, and this is my latest chair. It is a small rocking chair, and is made from a single board of Queensland maple, with a silver ash feature strip in the rockers. It can’t be seen in the back braces, but they are laminated with a single Qld maple lamination in the front, two silver ash laminations in the middle, and a red cedar lamination at the back. They flex, and are able to move within their respective holes in the seat and headrest, and this provides the comfortable back support.
These rocking chairs are for sale, and the prices for the time being will be as follows.
Queensland maple
Small: $2,500
Medium: $2,600
Large: $2,800
The price of chairs in other timber types will be adjusted to reflect the price of that particular timber. These prices don’t include shipping.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be rearranging my website to include additional details of the rocking chairs and quite a few more photos.
All the shoji and kumiko pages and sections will remain, and over time I’ll put up some more information in there as well.
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