Come to Life pt. 2

In bringing the series on drafting to a close, I thought that I'd show the process from conception to completion. Below is the thumbnail of the Balloon Back childs chair that I will be teaching next year at The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine. I designed it with the time limit of the one week class in mind. It hits all the chairmaking high points but is still comfortably achievable, plus, its a sweet little piece, great size for a kid, but also big enough for an adult to use as a stool.


Below is the actual measured drawing that I used to make the pattern and build the piece.


And here's the finished piece. It was so fun to make that I'm starting another right away.
It's a good size project for experimenting with finishes, the one below is a mix of blue and black with a shellac top coat. I've been playing with the shellac lately, but that's another post!


If you look at the image below and then back at the first drawing, you'll notice how close they are to each other. Usually, my quick sketches are meant to capture the intended "gesture" of the piece, then I try to measure it out and build it without killing the fresh quality of the sketch. It's tough to do. All to often, the piece gets muddled, compromised and downright embalmed and it takes some further study of the sketch to pull it off.