furniture making

The Gragg Chair Challenge

Now that the construction of the first Gragg chair is finished and the second one close behind, I got to thinking again, “Could I offer a workshop in building one of these?”  Since I have never built one start-to-finish uninterrupted I simply do not know.  Up to this point when working on these chairs I was constrained by the realities of video recording as I had to make sure my work was presented to the camera and my running commentary was comprehensible to a viewer.  So, how quickly could I work without consideration of the camera nor pretending to be a friendly soliloquist?

Some time over the next couple months I am likely to find out as I undertake the making of one while “on the clock,”  talking only to myself with an endless stream of criticism.

I believe that the only way to get one built in six days would be for students to start with all the necessary parts and with  complete set of jigs.  That is where I shall begin on some upcoming Monday morning.  Then, with a time lapse camera running, I will see if I can get one constructed in five days.  If I can, I would think a student could do it in six.

The workshop could not begin with a tree, as I do with the chairs I’m building, and not even with the raw riven material.  Nor could it begin with steam bending all the parts, although that would be covered and demonstrated one-on-one with each student in a staggered schedule.  The raw stock takes too much time to prepare for this context and the bent pieces need too much time settling down ex poste for this to be a realistic starting point so I would by necessity have all the stock prep and bending done in advance.  However if it goes much faster than I am estimating I could enfold some of that by-passed content into a real syllabus.

I’m thinking my exercise will take place in late November or early December of this year.  Wish me luck.  If I do get the chair built in five days, working 9-6 with a lunch break, I will feel more confident in offering a six-day workshop in autumn 2020 for four students to come and build their own.

Wish me luck.  I will be providing a daily update on the progress as the challenge unfolds.