Iterating on my Aspen Chair

[Mike King]

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:

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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:

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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:

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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

[Jim Koepke]

Nice looking chairs Mike.

jtk

[John Kananis]

I really, REALLY like the curvature in the chair seats (first pic). The "drop" you added is going to enrich the design even further.

[Tony Shea]

I'm looking forward to this one. I would love to build some chairs but have never had the time or the courage to take them on. I prefer a more modern design like this one and am really interested in how it turns out.

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.

Can you explain this part in a little more detail? I see what you've done a bit, the back legs are now more narrow than the front legs which is much more pleasing to the eye. But how did you achieve this? I assume the lap joint is no longer 90deg as you said but what do you mean by "Putting the legs square to the cross members"? It looks like the legs are square to cross members in both versions.

Again, I can't wait for this one to play out. Great job on the first set of chairs, the second mock-up already looks great!

[William Fretwell]

Will be following with interest, I need a stool and some chairs. Please take photos from front and side so we can understand the curves.

[Mike King]

So I've been busy with other projects, hiking, and getting ready for a trip to Ireland -- we leave tomorrow. I've build a lot of jigs for the prototype chair. I've faired the blanks for the seat and the back, and am just finishing rough shaping the legs. Here's some photos of progress.

In the photo below, you see the pattern shaped leg being used to build a jig to cut the mortice in the back leg. After the legs were steam bent, I build a jig to pattern shape the leg to the template that you can see in the photo. The jig for the mortice is on top of a jig that I built with Michael Fortune to shape the back of the stretcher so that the end exactly matches the profile of the leg. Since a floating tenon (stepped on the leg) has to align between the stretcher and the leg, I've used the jig that aligns the stretcher to the leg for the shaping the stretcher to create the jig for the mortice in the leg. The mortice in the stretcher is created before shaping the end (its interface with the face of the leg) of the stretcher.

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Below is the faired seat back. The tools used to fair the back were the travisher and scorp along with a fair amount of shaping with sanding (using the Rolex 90 with an interface pad and 60 grit paper). The back was predominantly faired using spokeshaves. I've not yet fully decided on the shape of the back -- I'm leaning toward an aspen leaf, but when I get the endoskeleton build for the chair, I may reconsider.

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While the pattern shaping provided a uniform leg shape, the final shape is shaped by hand. Here's some shots of progress on the rear leg. The tools used are a drawknife, spokeshaves, rasps, and sandpaper.


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And some progress on the front leg as well.

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Thanks for looking. It will be a while before the next update as I will be hiking in Ireland!

Mike