Category: chair craft

Anchored Candy no2 by Vivian Beer

Anchored-Candy-no2-by-Vivian-Beer
Vivian Beer

I can’t get enough of my fave category Chairchez La Femme. This time the lady behind her chairs: Vivian Beer and why not chose high heels as your inspiration?

Vivian Beer is fearless. That’s really the best way to describe her. The 33-year-old designer/maker takes steel and cuts it. Bends it. Shapes, welds, grinds, and sands it. She transforms it – by hand and machine – from rigid raw material into impossibly curvy furniture and sculpture. And she does all of this, more or less, alone.

Vivian Beer’s 2011 solo shows are at Courthouse Gallery Fine Art (Jul. 13 – Aug. 7), Manhattanville College’s Arthur M. Berger Art Gallery (Sept. 6 – 30, partnered with Purchase College), and Wexler Gallery (Oct. 7 – Nov. 25).

Via – and read more about her at American Craft Magazine | Curves Ahead.

Serena & Lily Poufs and Ottomans

Came across the sweet and lovingly made furniture pieces by the USA based Serena & Lily and was especially drawned to their beautifully crafted low seats – made to order, they look like they could have been some royal family’s beloved possesion in the past. Two of my personal favorites are:

Moroccan Leather Pouf works double duty as a footstool or extra seating. Handmade by artisans in Morocco, each one is unique, with subtle variations in color, where individual pieces of leather are dyed to perfection, then stitched together and embroidered by hand.

Chakki is a cross between an ottoman and a stool inspired by traditional Indian mills used to grind wheat and other grains. The base, which is made in India, is solid mango-wood finished with low-VOC stain in dark walnut or painted white. The plush cotton cushion can be slipcovered in any of the 12 upholstery fabrics offered.

Recycled Skateboard Bench by Deckstool

Broken skateboards are a byproduct of our culture usually destined for the landfill. The deckstoolâ„¢ recycles this waste into a unique, heirloom quality piece of furniture. The scrapes and scars on the decks create beautiful patterns over the original skateboard artwork. Every deckstool is meticulously built and finished by skilled craftsman in Pennsylvania, USA.

Wait… a Chair Ring?

If you think what you see is a chair, think again. It’s actually a Chair Ring! Yes, the kind of a ring you wear on your finger. I’m sure though, it would look equally as interesting if it was big enough to sit on. The Hand Engraved Chair Ring pictured above is by Kent Perdue

Ken:

“I like to use my Chair Ring to experiment with different ideas I have. This one was very exciting to see come alive. I made a chair ring about twice as tall as normal and engraved a brass plate that I then attached to it’s back. The chair was painted white and sanded back to give it an antique distressed look.”

About the designer:

Ken Perdue received a BFA in Crafts and Material Studies with a focus in woodworking and furniture design from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009. He is interested in making furniture, jewelry and other sculptural forms using a wide variety of techniques and materials.

Note: The link to Ken’s Etsy portfolio has disappeared.

Last edited by Guido J. van den Elshout on November 30, 2011 at 5:44 PM

The High Back Beach Chairs (Strandkorf or StrandKorb) of Bartelmann

Strandkorb or High Beach Chair by Bartelmann

In an attempt to revive the Classic Scheveningen High Back Beach Chair I blogged about it here and on my significant other blog.

Despite the fact that Google apparently has ousted Chairblog from their indexes after the recent change of hosting company, the photos of the two blog posts still appear on page 1 of a Google photo search. There I discovered Wohn- & Geschäftshaus Bartelmann seit 1903 im Ostseebad Kühlungsborn They also appear as Bartelmann . Com. It appears that Bartelmann has a shop, a B&B and also is one of the oldest producers still in operation of the typical High Back Beach Chairs for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Baltic high back beach chair is more rounded and the North Sea one more angular. If you like the models like I do, I suggest you search Google images for Strandkorf or Strandkorb, which gives results that come near what I meant.

Back to Bartelmann

Wilhelm Bartelmann opened shop as a basket maker October 7, 1870. In 1882 lady Efriede von Maltzahn had asked him to create a beach chair that could protect against too much sun and too much wind. Sun bathing was “not done” in those days in higher circles.
Wilhelm created the first beach chair from willow and cane, mockingly called by some “Upright Laundry Basket”. From there on the business started to thrive. Mind you, after he had created chairs for a Ducal Palace he was allowed to call himself Basket Maker by Appointment.

Here you can see Wilhelm, his wife and 5 children in one of his cane and willow high back beach chairs.