Finished 'Birth of Mary' Chair

Okay, here's the finished chair.  This is based on a painting done about 1510, by Hans Holbein from what appears to be a series of paintings on the birth of Mary, the mother of Jesus entitled "The First Bath".  It gets a bit confusing about what the actual name of the piece is, so I'll leave that to the art historians.  I started by calling it the 'Birth of Mary' chair, so I'm sticking with that.

Here's the original. (Taken from an on-line art print seller.)

Basically, a friend of mine asked, "Can you make me that chair?".  Of course, I said.  In the main, the chair is fairly straight forward, with the exception of the finial details on the back-posts.  So, I snagged the highest resolution image I could and zoomed in.

At first, I thought the top was faceted, and maybe the sides, after looking closer, I thought it might be smoother, and after drawing it out several ways, I thought that a more smooth approach would fit in with the chair better.

I'll post a "how it was made" entry later since I'm out of time right now.

Here's the finished project.  Hope you like it.  If anyone wants one, it's $375 the way it is.  This is in Cherry, with a split reed woven seat.  The shape can be modified a fair amount and different woods can be used to meet your style or pocketbook.

Finished chair photos courtesy of   Victoria Dye Photography

Progress on the "Birth of Mary" Chair

Things are going well.  Finished all the fitting and the upper rail joinery.  The decorative elements on the upper rail are moderately indistinct, so I improvised a bit.  Three holes, with carved concave edges, similar to Gothic tracery carving (but a whole lot simpler).

Here's the current status of the chair.  It pretty much looks like a frame because that's what it is.  Once the seat goes on, it'll miraculously transform into a chair.

Round Post Joinery

One of the questions I get (along with the head-tilt) when people look at turned furniture is "how do you make the mortises in something round?"

Well, you could hold it in place and freehand drill it.  Or, you could make one of these and do it on the drill press.

Cutting the second set of holes

It's basically a series of blocks cut at angles and glued to a base board.  All of the blocks are cut exactly the same, so they automatically center whatever is put in the middle.  My original set up for this is HUGE and is ungainly, so I decided to make a much more minimalist jig.

Cutting the first two holes is easy, just line up the bit with the incised line (what, you thought those were just for decoration?) and drill away.

What you see in the picture is cutting the second set of holes, which are 90 degrees from the first.  To make sure the holes are at 90, I put one of the chair rails in place and use my speed square (the gray triangle thingy) which has a level on it.  I put the level on the chair rail and adjust the rail up and down until it's level.  This guarantees the second set of holes is perpendicular.

It takes longer to explain than it does to just do it.  It's pretty straightforward.   The biggest advantage for making them this way is that you don't have to mark up your pieces.  The leg is almost at its finished state.  The last thing I want to do is mark it up.

First fitting

I had already put the mortise holes in the back posts, so it was time to do a fitting.  A couple of the rails are a bit thick at the joint, so some adjustments will be needed.

The observant will note that the front top rail is lower than the side rails.  This is for 2 reasons.

1 - It strengthens the joint since the holed for the rails won't meet
2 - Comfort.  A woven seat is more comfortable if the front rail is down from the side rails. It keeps the rail from pressing on the underside of your leg quite so much.

Next up - decorative drilling!

Birth of Mary Chair pt 2

Today was working on the back legs/posts of the chair.  It's hard to tell exactly what's going on in the picture, but it appears to be a combination of beads, fillets, and coves.

If this was a turned leg, it would be pretty quick to do.  However, this is in a square post, which means saws, gouges, and a mallet.

Layout

The layout lines are more for guidelines and getting the saw depths correct.  The gouges are really what determine the curves (at least for me).

Cutting the depth lines

Roughing to the lines with gouges

Basically, this is a case of rounding the beads with the inside of a #9 gouge and then removing everything that doesn't belong on the sloped section starting with aggressive cuts and then smoother and flatter gouges.

The two legs, roughed out

Test layout of back

Then I made the upper back rail.  It went so quick, I forgot to take any pictures.  It's still rough, straight from being sawed and the curve hasn't been smoothed down yet.  The tenons are cut, and are pretty much ready to go.

Next up are mortises and cleanup.

In progress shots for the reproduction of the "Birth of Mary" chair by Holbein.

It's a fairly straightforward chair, with some interesting pieces.  

First, the front legs are turned and the back legs are square, which isn't unique, but is unusual.

Second, the seat is woven.  Also not unique, but somewhat unusual, particularly in a new chair.  Most chairs were made with solid or inset seats.  If the seat was broken and couldn't be easily replaced, a woven seat might be made.  

Third, the circles on the back of the chair don't connect, which would be a common gothic design motif if they did.

So, here are a couple of pictures from the work in progress.

Layout

Power tools getting a bit of help

Cutting the rails

Marking the ends

Turning

The decorative front rail

Cutting the front posts.  Pretty cherry.

Transferring the marks from the first front post to the second.  (shhhh, it's a secret how I get them to line up)

Last of the turning complete

Next up: Making the back posts and doing the joinery.

Oseberg Chair - Almost finished

Here's the almost finished Oseberg chair.  It needs to have the pins and pin holes put in, the false seat holes drilled and it needs to be oiled.  The join between the two main boards on the back have both been bevelled to fool the eye.  The boards are not entirely glued in, but will move over time (used a modified breadboard end technique) so I wanted it to not look so obvious.

Oseberg Chair

Oseberg Chair

Next up in the shop - The Oseberg chair.   It will be interesting to make.  The original is made of Beech and the front and sides are not panels, but are solid wood, with the center lowered to give it a paneled effect.  Originally, it had a seat woven into the panels, somewhat like a rope bed.  I'm not going to be making the seat, but instead will make a frame that a seat can be built onto that will simulate the effect of the original cushion.

The original was painted.

Chair from the Oseberg Burial

Woodworker's notes:

1.) The mortise and tenons are rounded and not square, which is unheard of in later construction.
2.) Construction will be out of hard Maple as a substitute for Beech
3.) The front and side panels are all one piece with horizontal grain.  I will be using multiple boards and will try to match the grain
4.) The back posts are triangular, getting the angles for the mortises may be tricky.  Being able to drill the ends of the mortises will help with this.
5.) Unknown trouble - "Here there be dragons"

End Table

More in the "furniture for my wife" series. This is a modern piece, based loosely on the arts and crafts style.  The woods are oak and maple.  The oak is stained with Minwax "Sedona Red".  Once I'm caught up with my current commissions, I'm going to make a chest of drawers for myself in this same style.

First run of Glastonbury chairs

These are the first set of Glastonbury chairs I made.  They are all poplar, with a clear finish.

First!

Just a first post.  This blog will be to show the woodworking that I'm doing.

This is one I made for my wife, Victoria.  It is based on a 16th century chair.  The original was in oak and had 3 sets of vertical spindles in the back and had a solid seat.  This one is in ash and has a woven seat.  The big oops on this one is that when I changed the seat from solid to woven, I didn't take into consideration the difficulty in getting the weaving material through the space between the seat and back rungs.  It was... annoying.