by Elia Bizzarri | Oct 15, 2023 | Classes | 2 Comments
Last week's wheelbarrow making class with Peter Ross was a great success. And a lot of fun. First everyone spent a day moving my firewood around, so they could learn the proper use of a wheelbarrow. (I'm mostly kidding.) My mentor Curtis Buchanan took the class,...
by Elia Bizzarri | Sep 23, 2023 | Craft Films | 2 Comments
I've been getting ready for the wheelbarrow class in a couple weeks, including building some test wheels. Here's a finished wheel: Oops! Wrong photo! Here's a finished wheel: Well, at least the wooden parts are done - now it's off to Peter Ross's to shrink the...
by Elia Bizzarri | Aug 19, 2023 | Classes | 0 Comments
Boy, I've been busy! I taught a wonderful class with Eric Cannizzaro at Penland, NC in July, building Jennie Alexander ladderback chairs. Then my wife Morgan and I toured around for ten days, visiting family, friends and Lost Art Press in Cincinnati. ...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jun 13, 2023 | Classes | 4 Comments
My wife Morgan and I got back from our honeymoon in Italy a couple weeks ago. We focused on eating and walking, but I did see a 15th century riven-oak square thing (wardrobe?) in a museum, so I know they did have respectable trees once upon a time. ...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jun 3, 2023 | Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, Chairs For Sale | 7 Comments
I've been rooting around in my shop's attic and I found this partially finished chair, abandoned by a student in one of my classes long ago. I can't remember what happened - maybe he got sick or something. I've been tripping over it long enough, so I'm selling it for...
by Elia Bizzarri | Apr 29, 2023 | Chair Stories | 13 Comments
I have just returned from a road trip to Michigan with my friend Bill Anderson. The trip had a dual focus: deliver 40 chairs and learn to make a barrel. This by far the largest chair order I've ever gotten. What fun! I'd take another job like this tomorrow -...
by Elia Bizzarri | Apr 3, 2023 | Craft Films | 4 Comments
One of my readers sent me this video. It's from 1964 Sweden, of an old fellow making a spinning wheel. The film is beautifully shot and silent, so you can can choose your own soundtrack. There's a lot of great parts, but my favorite is the boring and...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 20, 2023 | Built for Speed Book Project, Classes | 5 Comments
Last week I had four friends over for a trial run of a class set in the year 1803, building a copy of Samuel Wing's loop back chair. It was a great week. We all learned a lot, none more than me. Thanks to Damon O'Gan for the black-and-white photos below: We split,...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 29, 2022 | Classes | 0 Comments
For the first time in three years, I am teaching a chair class. Or really a chair-and-table class. I'm co-teaching with my friend Eric Cannizzaro for two weeks at Penland in the NC mountains. Come spend your days building chairs and your evenings watching the...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 20, 2022 | Chairs For Sale | 1 Comment
About eight years ago I taught a class at The Woodwright's School. That wasn't anything new - I've been teaching there twice a year for over a decade now. One of my students in that class built this chair - entirely with hand tools, of course. That's...
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