FROM TREE TO CHAIR
A chair-making workshop was Kim's Christmas gift to Charles this year.
The tutor is Richard Hare, a joiner, who has developed wonderful skills in the art of creating furniture, mainly chairs, without the use of any power tools. The chairs are made from green timber.
Over the three weekends of the workshop, the participants will produce a Windsor type chair, with turned legs and stretchers, and hand hewn spindles at the back.
The first picture shows Richard demonstrating the whittling of the spindles. In the second, Charles is splitting a guava limb in preparation for shaping the spindles. The third shows the pole lathe, operated by a foot treadle, that is used for the turning of the legs. No doubt it is very important to have your tools extremely sharp when you are not using power.
Charles says that the workshop is incredibly intense and exhausting physically. However, it is also really satisfying, because it enables him to completely switch off from his work and business demands and pressures.
I just love seeing traditional skills like this being passed on to the younger generation.