Please Be Seated — Building Chairs that Endure (August 9 – 21, 2020) Haystack Moun­tain School of Crafts

This work­shop will explore the history of tradi­tional chair­mak­ing and green wood­work­ing tech­niques with an eye toward using them in modern seating. The conical wedged mortise and tenon is an ancient joinery tech­nique — arguably the simplest and strongest method for construct­ing seating. We will use hand tools to split mate­r­ial from a log, shape parts on a shave horse, carve seats, and turn legs on a lathe. Partic­i­pants will design and build seating that incor­po­rates these methods into pieces that speak to the indi­vid­u­als’ personal design aesthetic. All levels welcome.

George Sawyer is a second-gener­a­tion Windsor chair­maker with a BFA in Indus­trial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. He teaches tradi­tional Windsor chair­mak­ing out of his studio in Wood­bury, Vermont, and uses many of the same tools and tech­niques used in chair­mak­ing 200 years ago. He contin­ues to produce the designs that were perfected by his father, David Sawyer, while re-envi­sion­ing a future for fine crafts­man­ship and hand joinery in modern seating for his company, Sawyer Made. sawyer​made​.com @sawyer_made

Schol­ar­ship appli­ca­tion dead­line: March 1, 2020

General appli­ca­tion dead­line: April 1, 2020