Snow Day Thoughts
Kale Vogt
January 6, 2025
It’s a snow day – I’m hunkered down at my home desk with a hot tea. Between yesterday and today we’ve gotten more 7'' and there’s no sign of it stopping for at least a couple hours.
I’m energized by the new landscape outside my window. The blanket of white makes me want to clean my apartment and watch a movie and read a book and build a snowperson and and and…
My brain is scurrying faster than a rabid squirrel.
If I’m being completely honest with myself, however, building a snowperson seems a bit chilly. And I know good and well that I don’t have the attention span for a movie right now. Nope.
The thing this fresh snowfall makes me want to do most is cut wood.
I can’t stop thinking about my third apprenticeship chair build. My vision for the chair has been evolving (mentally) for weeks now. In case you missed my recent conversation with Chris, I plan to build Chris’s “Peasant Chair,” the chair design in his latest release, “American Peasant.”
To add my personal touch, I’ll be making several subtle changes to Chris’s original design. Changes like omitting the seat battens and adding a thicker seat to saddle, and changing the legs shape as well. Instead of the reverse faceted taper Chris chose, I’ve landed on creating a double tapered, rounded leg. Or … maybe?
When I mentioned earlier that my vision for the chair has been evolving, I meant that it’s still ongoing.
Ever since visiting Wales and seeing hexagonal chair legs in the wild, I’ve been inspired to try out the hexagonal shape for myself. All I’m waiting for is the right chair to come along. Is the Peasant Chair “the one?”
Oh, and the backrest and arm/hand shape. These are the things that keep me up at night.
On my second apprenticeship chair, one of my last-minute design decisions was to cut out notches on the comb. I had penciled them in before deciding – and in fear of botching my comb, I heavily debated not cutting them at all.
It was actually Chris who, after noticing the penciled-in notches, gave me the confidence to go for it.
The comb notches ended up being my favorite aspect of the chair. The added touch of personality has my voice written all over it.
I want to bring that confidence from my second apprenticeship chair into my third, and not be afraid of adding my own flair.
I’ll have two backrests to play with on this chair design. To continue with my new found love of notches? Or to try something new? Same goes with the arm and hand shape.
My antidote is to thumb through the pages of my growing collection of stick chair books and wait for inspiration to strike.
Soooo, those leg shapes I was writing about before. I’ve been referring to Chris’s “The Stick Chair Book” often lately with chair design questions. Below is a snippet I find helpful in which Chris gives some insight on how he goes about choosing a leg shape for chairs.
That’s a fine looking chair you built!
Oh interesting! I see the resemblance. That's quite the hand shape...