——August 23-25 & 27-29——Chair Making: Greenwood Ladderback Chair with Gabe Strand

Chair Making: Greenwood Ladderback Chair with Gabe Strand

Related Courses/Events: Woodworking Courses

Registration closes August 9 so the instructor can prepare materials.

Dates: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Day Off Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday, August 23-25, 27-29, 2027 9am-5pm

Optional, but highly recommended!
Sunday, August 22, 6pm The Handmade Chair Craft Night Series geek session with chair maker Gabe Strand

Description: (6 days) Beginner/Intermediate

This class presents students with the challenge of building a post-and-rung ladderback chair starting with green wood and using primarily hand tools. The chair taught will be a 2-slat “Jennie Alexander” style ladderback. Class begins with using layout tools to make a “story stick”, a simple drawing that shows all the dimensions of the chair. Next, students will learn how to split parts from a log, shape them using a drawknife and shave horse, steambend wood, and create post and rung joints using jigs and hand tools. Students have an option to build the jigs and fixtures they use to build their chairs, so they can continue chairmaking on their own. Options for seat weaving materials will be discussed and demonstrated. Finishing options will also be discussed. 

This workshop offers students an immersive experience in community woodworking. Students leave with:

- an understanding of the modern lineage of American ladderback chairmakers and the stylistic elements of a “traditional” ladderback

- skills using hand tools and the shavehorse

- practice with jigmaking for drilling and steambending

- an understanding of how wood movement and wood grain impact joinery

- having built rapport with fellow students through cooperative learning and encouragement

Required Tools:

• Pencil

• ?

Optional Tools:

• Feel free to bring

Workshop Fee: $

Materials fee: $? to be paid directly to the instructor during class.

GABE STRAND of Green Cove Craft designs furniture, woodworking plans, and tools intended to support makers in the exploration of handcraft. He writes about craft, teaches woodworking classes, and publishes zines in an effort to engage people in making and thinking about handmade objects, how they shape us and our communities. Currently his focus is on developing tools for fiber artists and woodworkers (coming soon!), teaching low-tech greenwood chairmaking courses, and expanding the Green Cove Craft library of zines.