Furniture Making

I recently bought a circa 1790 rocking chair frame at auction. I have the rush to make the seat with,....just one of those things I haven't gotten around to yet. But since it's in my living room gathering dust, I guess it'll be sooner than later. Before you get too bored and start on the next blog, take a look to the right of the chair in the photo:

I'm in the process of making a birthday "roombox", and if you have a table, where you can show the cake, plates, forks, napkins, etc, then you also need somewhere (besides the floor) where you can unload all the presents, right?
One of the tutorials at the CDHM forum was for making a country ladder back chair. The teacher was Barbara Vajnar. The same lady who was featured in American Miniaturist - April 2009 magazine. You'll find the article on pages 34-6, "Primitive and Pretty Country Furniture".
If you haven't joined CDHM, I urge you to do so. They are a fantastically friendly & helpful bunch of people, ranging from beginners to artisans. While there are a few "free" tutorials, you'll be able to access so many more as a member and if, unlike me, you're at a loss of what to do on a Saturday, there's a new, live online tutorial every week.....or you can do like me: stay after class & take it by yourself.
So right, you're asking: "let's get back to that teeny tiny chair, you showed us!"
This is what happens when you've skipped class and have to stay late to do the lesson by yourself: On the left are the rejects! All three of them!!
Upright, at the right, are the 2 keepers. One is completely finished; the other, like it's human sized prototype, still needs to be "rush"ed.
Originally seating material came from dried rushes as opposed to using willow cane. You can be more creative with cane but basically both when interwoven create surprisingly solid & durable seating.
Barbara's chairs are made entirely of 1/8" dowelling, craft sticks and toothpicks with #10 crochet thread used in place of rush. The only tools required are a dremel or drill with a fine bit and some sandpaper. Only don't get too creative with your dremel....hence the rejects! My idea about using it to sand with instead of using sandpaper wasn't very good....
Other than that, my only advise is to remember when weaving your chair seat, that altho the thread needs to be held tight, the chair is also fragile....especially when made by an amateur......hence another reject!

So stay tuned.....today was meant to be a basketweaving day for the babys roombox....if I can tear myself away from surfing for decent printies. The chairs are for the 2 birthday roomboxes and then....in my other spare time, I still have to finish the "travel" roombox....as well as watch for orioles.

So many ideas...so little time. No rest! I must be very wicked indeed LOL