From the Edge and On The Edge…
My first chair made in Ireland.
....it's been an interesting process building this chair, from the idea to make it coming out of a long length of driftwood found on a nearby beach.
...replacing green woodworking 'equipment' (a chopping block and shave horse), that we simply didn't have room to bring with us, gathering more driftwood pieces that 'looked right', the final construction and finishing....
It's been challenging,...ultimately in a good way!
We set a limitation on how much wood that we stumbled across was coming home with us.... having huge variety of rustic timbers to choose from would have been nice...but setting that limit made me consider the design a lot more....and ultimately played a big part in how the chair looked....very different from anything I'd made before...
The decision to scorch and paint it came from all the woods being various colours (mostly Alder and Ash)...then the suggestion to lend colours from the Chough (a coastal member of the Crow family) came about...
...and so it started...trying to wrestle a free form piece of furniture out of some driftwood. I still don't have a dedicated workshop, so I made good on the dry days and cracked on.
“Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to the edge. It’s too high! COME TO THE EDGE! And they came, And we pushed, And they flew.”
Some of the pieces were on the edge...wood mostly curving in certain ways ...they needed special attention!
The chattering monkey of procrastination and perfectionism was now sitting on my shoulder, self doubt creeping in... but you can push through that..."the Beast that dogs the heels of beauty has a beauty of its own" is something to remember ...and so I did...I kept on going and ignoring my doubts (a few text messages with friends helped.
...my comfort 'zone' had disappeared beyond the horizon....
Tramore Driftwood Chair
Finally finished, and a great experience in the making...
Not “playing it safe' gave me a whole load of valuable lessons and a piece of furniture I'm really pleased with.
A big thanks to @suziebrew27 for design input & @barrybangers for pure chromatic envisioning