Just finished!
September 29th, 2009
Finally my chair for the ‘Chairs of the Alumni’ exhibition is finished. You will have noticed the lack of the promised progress reports. Just too much on I’m afraid but I have the photos and will publish some ‘making’ posts in weeks to come.
'Spare' chair - decent photos coming soon!
The exhibition which runs in parallel with the George Ingham Retrospective opens this Friday. Details are here. I’ve put up a skeleton website about George, the book about his work which has just been published and the two exhibitions here. I will be adding lots of material from the book and exhibitions over the next month or two.
Woven with dyed nylon mono-filament
Stay tuned.
Entry Filed under: Wood
7 Comments Add your own
1. Bill Stankus | September 29th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
The concept of the exhibit is very appropriate… honoring a teacher is something not done enough. The fact that the exhibit features three dimensional objects makes for a visual feast for all in attendance.
Personally, in the hierarchy of woodworking, I’ve always placed chair making at the top of the list. A chair has two very different factors - critical factors - it must achieve - sitting comfort and it should have a good shape and design. That is part of the reason I was first attracted to Sam Maloof, his chairs were beautiful and exceptionally comfortable.
You chair is quite handsome - it appears light in weight, and it is also pleasant to look it. For the comfort factor I guess you will need to send me one in order to test it out!
Nice going Mark.
2. Nina | October 4th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Congratulations on finishing the chair Mark. It is stunning and impressive.
3. Mark | October 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Thanks guys. We had a great night at the opening! Things getting back to normal now.
Bill - Whilst I think the wide sprung seat looks inviting, the small backrest doesn’t immediately speak of comfort. However it is surprisingly comfortable to sit in. For my height at least, the back supports you just in the right spot. When you first sit back into it, it almost feels like a great massage as it straightens out your spine. I’ll let you know what it’s like to sit in for a longer period when I get it back at the end of the month!
Nina - it was stunning that I finished it! Especially as I had a shocking cold in the last week. Finished it the night before delivery.
4. Madox | June 13th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Hi,
I had an idea for a weaved monofilament item as well and was just Googling on how to join the monofilament to itself or to acrylic.
Do you mind telling me how you made the monofilament weave, how it is tensioned and how you secured it?
Many thanks! PS : In Oz too, small world
5. Mark | June 16th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Hi Madox.
The monofilament I used was 60Kg fishing line of about 1.25mm dia. I had it dyed the blue colour you can see.
The chair is woven with 2 pieces - one for the weft and one for the warp. The holes are around 3mm dia slightly counter-sunk so the line isn’t stretched across a sharp edge. On the underside the holes are connected by a slot cut the length of the framing piece so that the line is hidden where it travels between 2 holes. The weave is started by knotting one end tightly and feeding from the underside. The knot is small enough to sit inside the slot. Weaving proceeds by passing the line through the next hole, applying moderate tension and chocking it with a pointed satay stick. (I don’t know what woodworkers of the western tradition did before they discovered the satay!) This proceeds with light chocking for 3 or 4 holes before tapping a temporary chock in a little more firmly (just in case!). A satay stick is cut to length (so as to disappear within the frame member), dabbed with glue and driven home to lock the line in the last hole of the sequence. When the glue has dried, a knot is tied as close as possible as a safety measure and the line is trimmed to hide within the under-slot. This image shows the chair partly woven.
The correct tension is hard to describe in words. You definitely feel that the line is stretching slightly as you tension. But the main strength of course comes from the multiplicity of strands. (And you have sore hands when you have finished the weave!)
Haven’t tried to join the mono but I am quite wary of joining acrylic. I’ve experimented with lots of glues but unless you have a large surface area it’s very hard to get strength. As far as joining nylon line to acrylic - well good luck. I’ll be impressed when you pull it off!
Very glad you asked these questions. I’ve never written this down before and you remind me that I need to post more on how I made the chair.
6. Luke | July 20th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Looks great! Build quality looks sweet too. Love the aesthetic/functional/structural qualities of the weave.
When you say ‘dyed’ nylon - Do you mean you dyed it yourself ? George makes reference to this in his book too… But i wasn’t sure?
cheers
luke
7. Mark | July 20th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Hey Luke. It’s dyed in much the same way as fabric. This is from a large batch I had dyed while I was at art school. I relied on the knowledge of the textiles people. It was dyed for about 12 hours in a heated vat using a fabric dye.
Sorry I can’t give you an exact recipe. Will have to research it again myself when I run out of my current supply.
Cheers, Mark
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