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

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.

Turning

Nothing much today, just some turned ware.  The canisters are cherry and are variations based on the Mary Rose findings.  The bowl was a gift and is made from walnut. 

"Modern" medicine

How would you like to use one of these to set a bone?  Yeah, me too.  This is taken from a woodcut that I found in the Mary Rose book "Before the Mast".  It was made for a friend who does a barber-surgeon impression.

It's all made of Ash, with the exception of the long screw, which is hard Maple.  Making the screw was the hardest part.  Not so much technically difficult, but it's physically demanding to cut that much thread into maple.

The finish is milk paint with a tung oil finish coat.  The effect is very similar to period paints.

The woodblock I was working from.  The worst part was trying to get the proportions down.  Look at how long that shin is!

The mechanism.  The two ends are static, with the middle piece moving back and forth along the screw.

Oh, and I was asked how I made the crank handle.  It was pretty simple.  I cut out a place for the spokes.

Then chucked it on the lathe and turned it round.

I cut down the spokes from the original so they wouldn't get in the way all the time.

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.