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Story Chair
Thursday, 26th January 2012 22:26 PM
In November I blogged about the story chair I was making whilst part of Designer Makers (see “what’s been happening”). The chair was being made for Sandal Junior School in Baildon, Bradford. It was to commemorate a much loved and clearly charismatic teacher, Dot Mainwaring, who died suddenly last year. The school children were asked what things they thought were important to Dot and they came up with cats, hockey and mountains, all of which were to be incorporated into the design of the chair. The school had tried a number of places to have the chair made but no one wanted to take it on. We leapt at the opportunity it’s unique work like this that I find most interesting.
When working on a piece of furniture one develops a commitment to the piece, sometimes putting in extra touches that give it that extra something. Unfortunately this may eat into the profit occasionally, I suppose that’s why craftspeople tend to make bad businesspeople. Anyway I decided to add a mouse to compliment the cat, I hide a carved walnut mouse underneath the seat as a little surprise for each new generation of children who find it.
The teachers and children were very pleased with the result. We received the following email from Joanne Howells the teacher who did most of the organizing:
“I just wanted to get in touch tonight to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the wonderful chair and fitting memorial for Dot……..
You really have created something that not only encapsulates Dot’s personality but something that will last forever at our school. The little mouse at the back of the chair is such a lovely touch, we used to stay at a youth hostel in York on residential with the children and the mouseman had carved his signature mouse on a staircase there and Dot always loved to wind the children up anout seeing a mouse…….
Many thanks for all you have done.”
So a sad event has resulted in some happiness, the teachers and children are happy with it and I enjoyed making it.
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Workshop shot of the chair
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Machining the hockey stick arms, Health and Safety officers look away now!
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Machining the hockey stick arms, Health and Safety officers look away now!
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Preparing to apply the maple snow caps to the mountain tops