Yes, this is the Place!!

 As I said on my other blog location, this is where you will find all my new posts. Actually, I'm excited about it, I always found the other site a bit cumbersome and it slowed down my posts. Hopefully things will pick up because there is no shortage of workshop fun in the hopper. Have a great holiday and welcome back!!

Here's a shot of the last class of 2021 in my shop. The Temple chair classes this year were a huge success, it's a fun and attainable chair for folks of all skill levels, plus it's comfortable! I'm looking forward to the classes in 2022, it's going to be a busy year!

Welcome back and thanks for following

New Home for Chair Notes

I have finally built a new website to have all my projects in on place! You can find it at www.petergalbert.com and you can go directly to the new Chair Notes page here. I hope that you will take a moment to subscribe to the email list to get notified when I add a new post.

I will of course be leaving all the post here that I've written since 2007 and include a link on the new page to bring you back if you care to relive old times!

Class Schedule for 2017!

I am happy to announce the fall schedule for my classes in southern Maine/ New Hampshire!

These classes will cover all aspects of making the chair including:
Splitting, handling and storing green wood
Wood drying and technology
Tools and Sharpening
Shaving and Shaping Parts
Turning (While turnings will be provided, there will be extensive demonstrations on the turning processes.)

Drilling, Reaming and Design

Bending

Joinery

Seat Carving

Assembly

Finish (demonstration)

The classes are limited to 6 students to ensure that we will be able to follow the interests and abilities of the students. Class times will run from 8-5 daily, but after hours access will be available to ensure that the students have enough time to explore and learn at a comfortable pace.

For 2017, I will be offering two classes, the first is a side chair class where new chairmakers will learn to make either of the chairs in my book, the fan back or the balloon back. You can choose either as well as the style of turning, baluster or bobbin (the stylized bamboo). The second class is a continuous arm class that is open to all students.

The Details

September 11-16 Sidechair Class
tuition $1500
number of students per class - 6

October 16-21 Continuous Armchair Class
tuition $1500
number of students per class - 6

Registration
Please contact me to register for the class at my email address, peter@petergalbertchairmaker.com. All enrollments will be first come first serve. Full payment for classes is due upon enrollment. The cancellation policy allows a full refund up to 30 days from the class start date and 50% up to 15 days from start date. If we are able to fill the slot, full refund will be made regardless of cancellation date.
Our goal is to teach small groups to increase the attention available per student and create a personally tailored experience, thank you for your understanding and commitment.
Feel free to contact me at (978) 660-5580
Classes are held at the Mill at Salmon Falls in Rollinsford New Hampshire, on the border with South Berwick, Maine.

Quick Carving Tip!

Carvings have absolutely nothing to do with the structural integrity of the chair, but they do stand out as the most visually "loud" elements. As such, I am always very sensitive to the role of the carvings because they give a distinct impression of the quality of the rest of the piece.  Here is just one part that I find adds a great deal of interest and beauty to a volute on a comb back ear.

I alway think about a volute in terms of the negative space, that's where I do my work after all. I think of the shape as a long taper that's been bent to a round shape. It helps me to focus on the evenness of the curves if I think of it as a straight taper first. I do the same for the depth of the carving, keeping a close eye on the stop cut/ side wall in the volute so that it tapers evenly as well. The combo of the two make the carving visually flow.

The Galbert School of Craft

That's right, the time has come, I am beginning to scout out locations and facilities in southern Maine for a school. After a couple of years of transition and quiet following my move and book release, I am ready to put together a school dedicated to teaching small groups of people chair making and also roping in some of my most gifted friends to share their talent and energy as well.  My goal is to keep things intimate and relaxed, just a great place, in a great place to do what we all love.
I welcome any input and advice as I enter this endeavor as well as any tips from folks who know the area that I'm considering. I want to be within a couple hours of Boston (I still have my roots there) and also close enough to some great towns and sights that can be a part of the experience. I've learned a lot from my friend Kelly Mehler and the good folks at The Port Townsend School of Woodworking and Highland Woodworking about how to create an environment that puts the craft and the students first and I look forward to seeing you there!
I will be posting progress reports as things develop and a schedule at the earliest possible date. I hope to start in the spring of 2018 and offer classes through the fall.

I just got back from a great trip to Iowa for the third Handworks, and I assume, like many of the exhibitors, I've spent most of the day asleep on the floor with my dogs. I find that following their nap rhythm is the only plan that makes sense after such and active and exciting few days.

Here I am in the Greenwood barn, where all us rugged outdoorsy types showed our wares in the rain and cold! I'm "rugged", but apparently not so much so that I would drive out...I flew, so here is the chair in progress that I disassembled and packed in a box.

 This chair is fast becoming one of my favorites, lots of design choices and influences feel like they are starting to gel. Plus it's a ball to build, but more on this one later once I can show the finished piece.

Here are some of Claire Minihan's travishers in exotics Australian woods. Claire has achieved so much with this tool and while I gave her a nudge in the beginning, this baby is all hers now. I have a knack for inserting myself in the picture with people that are already on their way to great things.

 

Here is a beautiful Japanese shavehorse that Russ Filbeck brought by to show me, it had a surprisingly powerful grip!

Well that's it for today, I have other business to attend

Outside of a Dog...

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend, inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx

I think woodworkers take the cake as far as dog obsession (sorry Megan). In my case at least, I'm comfortable admitting that making a life in woodworking is basically an attempt to recreate and extend my favorite childhood moments. Dogs and sticks...what more do I have to say...Rosebud?

Here is my latest shop mate Georgie, taking in the morning sun while I cook breakfast. One of the reasons that I want to share this experience (besides the obvious cute as hell factor) is how much this little gal is teaching me about, well everything. Anyone who has ever had a shy or nervous dog will relate to this. Georgie is the easiest dog that I've adopted, until she sees something new. She was raised without much exposure to people and certainly no exposure to city life. Around home, she is housebroken, a snap to train and always eager to please. But when new people come around or someone on the street makes eye contact, she goes in full flight mode.

I'll cut right to the chase with what I've learned, and believe it or not, relate it back to woodworking and chairmaking. Anyone with expertise or years of experience knows how tough it can be to explain the process to a newcomer. How can they not understand that their tools are dull or their technique is wrong, it's so obvious?! This brings me to my second quote

Patience is a mild form of despair, disguised as a virtue
Ambrose Bierce

When I finally taught Georgie that jumping in the truck could be fun (there's safety and treats in there), I thought that I'd opened up a whole new world of adventure, we can go anywhere now!
But then how do I get her out?
If my other dog Kobe is there, she follows him out, but otherwise, no deal. So my first inclination was to grab the dog, put her on the ground, give her a treat and then expect that now she knows that it's all good. I did this a couple of times, but the fear instilled by my reaching for her was worse than any promise of a treat. To her, the truck ride is still novel, and that door opens to a great swirling abyss. Reaching in to grab her is akin to the disembodied arm reaching out of the darkness!

Thinking from her perspective is one of the most challenging mental games that I've come across, there is so much that we take for granted. So here's what I did. We went to the truck in the driveway, I opened the door and she hopped in happily. Then I held a treat so that she'd have to stick her head out just a bit to get it. Then she retreated. The next one was a little further out and finally, she hopped down to get one on the ground, this is the driveway that she knows after all. Multiple treats and then a well earned retreat to the truck.
Then we repeated the process about 4 times until she hopped down willingly. Throughout the day, I walked her to the truck about 3 more times to repeat this process. At the end of the day, I leashed her up, drove her to the park, crouched next to the car and called her out, and she hopped down and off we went. Not all our work is this fast. New people and experiences are still a challenge.


I think that extending this kind of patience with students, or even better, ourselves, while learning is essential. I recall wanting to learn woodworking, but I had such trouble letting myself take a little at a time, I wanted to master is all, get to that end ability. But like it or not, I think we all learn more like Georgie. Finding out what parts you are comfortable with and stepping into risk with some safety is essential.
Students often remark that I am very effusive in my support during class. It isn't false praise, what I see is a bunch of adults, experts in things that I probably know nothing about, putting themselves out there and trusting me to guide them through uncharted territory. It's a leap of faith and act of bravery that I've rarely risked.

Moral of the story, besides get a dog? Give yourself a break, take a moment to think of your goals as well as your achievements and remember, even though the piece that you are working on will be finished, your process marches on. What kicks your butt today, you will soon take for granted.

WIlliamsburg in Action!

Here is a short video that Ben Strano from Fine Woodworking shot of me bending the c arm in front of a packed crowd.  Bending is always magical, as the solid wood gives way and contorts, your sense of reality is challenged, kinda like floating. But like all feelings of floating, one is also highly aware of how far you could fall...the 250 onlookers gives that height a little boost! Thanks again to Ben for sharing the video.

And here are some other times that you can see me in action or join me for a class.

April 10-15 at North Bennet Street School in Boston, I"ll be teaching the Balloon Back/ Fan Back chairs (your choice of style and turnings). It's a 6 day class with 8 students and I'll have a great helper in the form of Eli Cleveland. We are also going to be adding a Continuous Arm class in August and this course serves as the prerequisite for taking it. Here is a link for enrolling.
I hope to see you there. I am really enjoying my relationship with the school and hope to continue offering and expanding the chairs that we are building. These classes have been some of the best I've had a chance to teach, with great facilities and small class size, everyone gets lots of attention and we have a great time.


I will be at Handworks in Amana, Iowa May 19-20 again this year, the Abrahams put on a great event and deserve a real pat on the back for the effort.

I'll be back in Maine for the Lie-Nielsen open house on July 7-8, as usual, because it's such a great time.

I will also be teaching a Perch making class overs two days at Lie-Nielsen in Maine on the weekend of July 22-23.

I will also be at the Greenwoodfest here in Massachusetts, but I hear that it's sold out, which says a lot about the quality of the folks involved.

I will probably have at least one more class in the fall at North Bennet Street, but for the most part, I will be spending this year making chairs and playing with my dog...and that's true.

Catching Up: The Winter

This summer will be a bit subdued as far as travels go, which is going to be lovely for me after the fall and winter of action. After returning from Purchase, I immediately launched into teaching a 22 person class in the Cabinet Program at North Bennet Street. I spent the better part of January working with the students there.

Here is the chair that we made. It's a scaled up version of my kid's hoopback (which is one of my personal favorites to have around the house). I made this version larger to better serve the students at the school as their bench chair. I think it's very cool that they get to make their own shop furniture. Scaling it up posed the usual challenges of adjusting the rake and splay of the legs so that the chair doesn't take up too much floor space, which is especially important in the tight spaces of the school.

As the class was winding down, I went down to Colonial Williamsburg to present, along with the outstanding Don Williams and the folks from the Cabinet and Jointers shop, on chairs...of course.

 The auditorium at the museum is first class with two cameras and projection to really get up close. Here Kaare is giving me a "hand" pumping the treadle lathe. Frankly, it was a bit much for me to turn, pump and talk! I got lots of help after wearing out Kaare from the jointers apprentices.

photo by Tom McKenna

For the presentation, I thought it would be fun to work out a new continuous arm and Kaare Loftheim, master cabinetmaker, agreed. Here is the chair that I made, based on a few photos in books and online. As usual, I learned some fun things about design and got to finally turn some Rhode Island balusters!

 Here is the complete chair and the one that I demonstrated

 The seat shape and the legs were a lot of fun.

 Plus I took a little more time with the distressing, placing a thin coat of shellac inbetween the undercoat and top coat of dark green. I was very pleased with the results.

 The swelling on the lower section gives ample material for the joinery, I'm not sure how much that played into the design thinking at the time, but it was apparent to me. The lower portion takes on much more of an important role in the look of the leg, which gives a nice balance. The image below is not good for proportions because of my phone lens, but you get the idea.

It was a great trip and an honor to be invited. If you ever get the chance to attend, I highly recommend it.
And here is your Georgie update! She is thriving and turning out to be the easiest dog I've ever had. Playful and loving but extremely calm on her own. She is now acclimated to all the shop noises and all my hustling about. When it gets to be too much, she just retires to her crate for a nap! We are still working on new experiences. The first time she saw the television she freaked, but now she sits calmly while it's on, I don't think that she had ever heard a voice come from a box.

I know it's gratuitous, but I"m smitten

Lil would approve of her technique

The truck is becoming a safe space, this is their first ride together

Episode 4: A New Beginning

If you don't follow me on instagram (it's like blogging with a dash of attention deficit disorder) than you might have missed some of the goings on lately, so I'll try to catch you up!

I spent four months as a resident artist at SUNY Purchase, which is a college just north of White Plains, New York. It was a fantastic experience getting to have time to create whatever I wanted and interact with a group of wonderful young people. I had minimal teaching requirements, just a few hours a week and found myself exploring ideas that would be tough to do in my normal shop time.
I made sculptures, chairs, and chairs that were somewhat sculptural!

Here are some images of the pieces from the exhibit at the end of my time there. Here is a rocker that I made.

 I was playing with some ideas, trying to convey a sense of tension between the parts, treating the posts and legs like tent poles (with some subtle details to add to the effect) and the crest, seat and spindles and arms seem to stretch and drape over them. I've always enjoyed the way that classic Windsors show tension and thought I'd push it a little.

When I first arrived at the school, I was frankly a bit burnt out from making lots of chairs to fulfill all my obligations while clearing 4 months of my calendar. There were a bunch of discarded logs outside the studio, so I started splitting and carving them to make it look like there were objects embedded in them. If you've ever split a log, you know that moment of discovery when it is finally in half and you can see what you got. I always thrill at this moment and enjoyed the thought of these objects meeting me there.

 Here is a bench that I made in Butternut and White Oak. The high spots on the carved seat are akin to the pommel on a seat, so you can sit in lots of positions, kind of like my perches.

 The is a bit of a departure. I have a bunch of lovely curly ambrosia maple planks, but as you can imagine, it doesn't come into play much in my chair work. So I wondered how I might find interest in it without just stuffing it into a box form. This thin plank cupped and warped a lot, so I took the challenge to join two pieces with dovetails. It required lots of head scratching and scribing as the planks are rough sawn not uniform in any way. I really liked the way it came out. It looks very different from every angle.

 Here is again, looking full of volume.

 

Here you can see the rough sawn texture competing with the curly maple, it makes for a lovely surface

 I could go on and on about all the different stuff, probably wearing your patience thin with my "artistic" works. Suffice it to say, we all need to play sometimes to clear out the cobwebs and I surely did that.

At opening, I was lucky enough to have my good friend Jon Binzen, from Fine Woodworking, join me for a conversation about the work. It was an honor and a pleasure. 

There's lot more that's happened since I disappeared, but for now, I will leave you with this, my new pup Georgia! She's a rescue from, yes, Georgia and is about 1 year old. She was part of a hoarding situation and surrendered to the shelter with 10 other dogs. She has very little exposure to the world but she is sweet and bold enough to test it out. With some support, I see her blossoming into an epic companion.

 

And of course a great shop dog!

 She has the lovely spirit of my dear Lil and I am beyond overjoyed to be with her.

Register for Spoon Carving Event!!

Here is the poster for the event at Suny Purchase!

Please email me at peter@petergalbertchairmaker.com (yes, the vacation reminder is on, but ignore that) to get on the list. Spaces are limited and this will be first come first serve. For more info, see the previous post. I will get in touch with all the accepted registrants,
thanks
Pete

Free Spoon Carving Event!

I am pleased to let you know that on December 1st and 2nd at SUNY Purchase (the college where I am currently enjoying a stint as resident artist) there is going to be a spoon carving event with some of my heroes of the craft.
Tim Manney, Darrick Sanderson and Joshua Vogel will be joining me for two discussions as well as demonstrations for the two days. As part of the grant that is hosting me at the school, thanks to the generosity of the Windgate foundation, they set aside funds to create and event and I couldn't think of anything that I'd rather do than hang out with these brilliant makers and learn. I hope you can find the time on short notice to come and join us. Spaces open to the public will be limited and in the next week I will announce how to register and participate. I sincerely hope to see you there, but regardless, I will be tickled pink to see these modern masters at work.

Half Way Update

I have been at the State University of New York at Purchase, just north of White Plains since early October thanks to a grant that gives me the opportunity to make new works without the pressure of making a living. My time here ends in mid December. It's been an eye opening experience. The energy of the students here at the art school is inspiring and brings me back to my own time in art school 20 years ago! I teach 3 hours a week and have a studio space next to the wood shop where I get lots of interaction with the school community.

Besides chairs, I've been making small sculptures from cherry logs, carving them with embedded objects. Splitting logs is always exciting for what one can find, so I thought I'd add a bit of my own drama

I've had lots of great things happening lately. Next year I will be continuing to teach at North Bennet Street in Boston and am happy to be lecturing again at the conference at Colonial Williamsburg in February. Some of you may recall that I helped Dave Sawyer and Curtis Buchanan present there about 10 years ago. I think that the Old Yankee and Young Whippersnapper routine that Dave and I played out endeared me to the organizers. I recently visited Dave in Vermont, and while his health is not so great, I was thrilled to see that his son George continues to practice the craft and that the environment is still charged with that special aura of slow engagement that changed my life. You can read more about Dave and George in issue 2 of Mortise and Tenon Magazine.
I also have a video coming out that my friends at Lie-Nielsen produced. It's in the can and I am just awaiting all the logistics to work out before I can offer the release date. It's was fun to make and I am very happy with the content. It focuses on green woodworking and the project is based on one of Dave's firewood carriers. More to come.

I've also been lucky enough to get a section in Nick Offermans new book "Good Clean Fun". Nick is best known for his character on the TV show "Parks and Recreation" and for being married to Megan Mullally (he'll appreciate the attribution). Last December, while in Boston for a play, he took my chairmaking class and I can honestly say that he was one of my most enthusiastic students. He is using his public position to shine a light on the value of craft and craftspeople as well as setting forth a very useful philosophy on good living. I've been listening to his books while in the shop and I highly recommend them (not just the one that I'm in).

On the tool front, I have been sorely remiss in not updating the blog. While Tim and Claire have continued to crank out amazing tools (these are solely their businesses and I am their best client), I have ceased the wholesale selling of my caliper. My retailers have been great partners for many years, but the margins on the tool are basically nonexistent when I sell through them, so I've chosen to sell the caliper solely through my website after I return from the residency here in NY. For all those looking to purchase one, thanks for your patience and check my site just before Xmas for details.

And for all my friends out there who have been following all the changes in my personal life, I'd like to bring you up to date. It's been a year since the unexpected loss of my dear Lily and sadly, Rockets health took a turn recently and Claire bravely gave her friend up to peace. For those who don't know, after my divorce, I had both dogs and Claire was working with me at my house in Sterling. Her bond with Rocket was unlike any I've ever seen. So when she moved south, it was obvious that Rocket should go with. It was a great choice and Rocky lived out his days in such good care and love that we should all be jealous. I got to see him a few times in the last year and it was always great to see him living the good life as the happy scoundrel that he always was.

I am excited to go back home to Boston and start looking for another dog to adopt.

So many of you visited me in my years with Sue that I wanted to let you know that we remain friends and that we have both found new partners to share our lives.  I am proud of both of us and will always be the person that she helped me become.

I am lucky to be celebrating my two year anniversary next month (boy does time fly!) with the lovely Stephanie Hubbard. She is a landscape architect with Site-Creative, a firm she started 10 years ago in Boston and our life together brings me great joy.

I won't prattle on, although I really want to, but suffice it to say, especially for all those who were so supportive in the transitions of years past, I am very happy, so thanks for helping me along. If you want to see Stephanie in action, visit the archive shows of "This Old House" as she was a regular contributor in the past.
Thanks for continuing to read Chair Notes, obviously I've been hunkered down with many other endeavors, but if you want to keep up, please follow me as I post more often on Instagram under  petergalbert. Yes it's the lazy man's blog, but I'm not too proud.
cheers

About the Oil

I get asked a lot about the oil that I use, and over the years I've used many different types. One mix that I've often returned to is a spar varnish, raw tung (or linseed) and mineral spirit mix. The next question that I get asked is usually about the proportions, which is perfectly natural.

But the answer that I feel compelled to offer isn't as easy as a the question. I think that it's more important to understand that each of these three components play a role and depending on where I am in the finishing process or the environment that I'm working in, I might change it up a bit.
First, the spar varnish. This is the tough flexible finish that dries to form the shine and water resistance. But, left alone, it is way to sticky, thick and fast drying. So to slow it down to the point that I can lay on a thin layer, I add the raw oil, which goes on smoothly but if applied alone would take way to long for my patience to build and dry. But mixing these two together gives a mix that is akin to the thickness of honey, so I add mineral spirits to make it flow. If it's the first coat and my goal is to flood the oil on and have it soak in, then a generous amount of mineral spirits is a good idea, but for later coats that I pad on and wipe off the surface quickly, then a thicker mix works fine. Often, I'll burnish the chair before the final coat and use more raw oil in the last mix to get a "softer" look. I don't wax my chairs because I've seen trouble with body heat causing clouding, but maybe I just don't know how to use it or have used the wrong stuff.

So as far as I'm concerned, there is no magic mix. I suppose that the simple way to put it is that whatever you do, you are gonna end up with a basic finish made up of cured oil, and using the different elements is simply an opportunity to guide the process. I usually start with leaning towards too much spar and fill in the other elements to get the consistency and time that the project and weather call for. I always check my rag to see how long it takes to harden, if it isn't hard after a night of drying, add more spar.

And of course, dispose of rags in a safe way to prevent spontaneous combustion!!!

A Fine Time

I just returned from the Lie-Nielsen open house in Maine and, as usual, I can't say enough about the host and all the other makers. It's the one show that I go to every year and it's a great chance to see my friends and get feedback on new work. I highly recommend going.

 Here is a rocker that I finished in preparation for the show. I fumed it in ammonia as you see in the tent below.

Here is the before and after. I went darker than usual, just to see what the results would be like, I think it suits the design nicely.

Here is one of my favorite details. I've been wanting to make a crest like this for some time, and I think it will be appearing in my chairs more often.

Here you can see the oil going on over the fumed wood, I don't think the video will play, but the image say it all.  I fumed it overnight to get this color with regular household ammonia.