Mike King
08-04-2022, 9:27 PM
In 2018, I attended a class at Anderson Ranch with Adrian Ferrazutti titled "Bending the Line." The topic was to get out of rectangular/square forms and build objects that were curved and had flow. With some assistance from Adrian, I designed and built a set of four chairs for my condo in Snowmass I called the Aspen chair. Here's what they look like:
483785
So, now I'm back at Anderson Ranch working with Michael Fortune in a workshop that the topic was chairs and tables. I decided to make a set of 6 chairs to accompany a Thomas Moser table in my house outside of Boulder. I told Michael that there were some features of the Aspen chair that I really liked, particularly the comfort of the chair (you can sit in these chairs for hours quite comfortably) and the shape of the legs. I don't really like the back -- it was an afterthought as I was most interested in making a double tapered back (the back tapers top to bottom and from the center to the edges). Michael was highly complimentary of the chair and thought rather than some of the ideas I had to move to a more conventional seat frame, I should focus on iterating on the design of the original chair. So, this thread is going to document the process and changes I am making to the chair.
The first step, since I had a finished chair that could serve both as the inspiration for the design and an initial design mockup, was to build a mockup. Here's the first elements; a simple repositioning of the legs:
483786
Putting the legs square to the cross members but reducing the angle of the lap joint gives a lot more flow to the chair. The old chair is on the left, while the seat from the old chair is on the reoriented legs on the left.
Next was changing the seat a bit. Instead of it simply continuing from the seat pan into the front of the seat, I incorporated a drop in the front. Perhaps you can see it in this photo:
483787
There's also a lot more shaping of the front and back leg, and the back has just been glued up. Eventually, the seat will have a different overall shape and the back will be trimmed to represent an Aspen leaf.
So, here's where things stand after nearly two weeks of work. I'll update as progress is made...
Mike
483785
So, now I'm back at Anderson Ranch working with Michael Fortune in a workshop that the topic was chairs and tables. I decided to make a set of 6 chairs to accompany a Thomas Moser table in my house outside of Boulder. I told Michael that there were some features of the Aspen chair that I really liked, particularly the comfort of the chair (you can sit in these chairs for hours quite comfortably) and the shape of the legs. I don't really like the back -- it was an afterthought as I was most interested in making a double tapered back (the back tapers top to bottom and from the center to the edges). Michael was highly complimentary of the chair and thought rather than some of the ideas I had to move to a more conventional seat frame, I should focus on iterating on the design of the original chair. So, this thread is going to document the process and changes I am making to the chair.
The first step, since I had a finished chair that could serve both as the inspiration for the design and an initial design mockup, was to build a mockup. Here's the first elements; a simple repositioning of the legs:
483786
Putting the legs square to the cross members but reducing the angle of the lap joint gives a lot more flow to the chair. The old chair is on the left, while the seat from the old chair is on the reoriented legs on the left.
Next was changing the seat a bit. Instead of it simply continuing from the seat pan into the front of the seat, I incorporated a drop in the front. Perhaps you can see it in this photo:
483787
There's also a lot more shaping of the front and back leg, and the back has just been glued up. Eventually, the seat will have a different overall shape and the back will be trimmed to represent an Aspen leaf.
So, here's where things stand after nearly two weeks of work. I'll update as progress is made...
Mike