by Elia Bizzarri | Apr 30, 2021 | Chair Stories | 1 Comment
Troy and his wife picked up a set of four loop backs and one continuous arm last week. Troy took a class from me a couple years ago - my chairs will join his chair to form a complete set of six. His a story of his chairs: Drawknives are the tool I’d collect if I ever...
by Elia Bizzarri | Mar 31, 2021 | Classes | 0 Comments
"What did you do during the pandemic, " friends will soon be asking. Now you can have a good answer: "I made a set of French eating spoons for our dining table." Boy, will they be impressed. First we'll learn to carve a French eating...
by Elia Bizzarri | Mar 23, 2021 | Craft Films | 7 Comments
For being in the middle of a pandemic, my life is pretty full. Tools and chairs have been selling better than ever in my career. I have made over 200 reamers in the last 12 months and am about to run out again - whew! The online classes are doing well and...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 22, 2021 | Classes | 1 Comment
I first made one of Curtis Buchanan's Velda's Chairs about six or eight years ago when a neighbor came by my shop and ordered two bar stools and a settee in Velda's style. They wanted the chairs unpainted, so I drove three hours to find walnut...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 13, 2021 | Classes | 5 Comments
I remember the day I first heard of Dave Fisher. I was standing in front of my shop talking with one of my students about Instagram and he mentioned Dave Fisher. He seemed surprised that I'd never heard of him, so he pulled out his phone and started...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 8, 2021 | Chair Stories | 2 Comments
Last week I shipped a Continuous Arm Rocker to a customer in AZ. This is a story about his chair: Seth and I stood in the yard and stared. Sheds and and lean-tos filled to overflowing with machines surrounded us; rusty mammoths from a bygone age. Machines that didn’t...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 31, 2021 | Classes, Craft Films | 0 Comments
I first met Jane Mickelborough when she spent three days with me and taught a class on spooncarving in my shop. They spent a day carving the spoon, a day chip carving and a day doing wax inlay. Her work is beautiful, with lovely lines and extraordinarily...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 13, 2021 | Craft Films | 3 Comments
I have a ball last weekend carving spoons with Peter Follanbee and am looking forward to this weekend's class. Peter has everything - the deep voice, the big personality, mad skills and a flowing beard. What more could you want? went back and watched a couple of...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 31, 2020 | Classes, Craft Films | 1 Comment
I've been looking forward to doing this class for a few months - I first learned to carve a spoon properly in one of Peter's classes and he is such a laid-back, entertaining fellow that the idea of teaching with him sounds like great fun. We'll carve a...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 25, 2020 | Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, Classes, Craft Films, Kiln | 3 Comments
Where do you get green wood? I get this question regularly and it's a hard one to answer. Seth and I sell oak splits for chairs, but it's not exactly cheap if you need a bunch of parts. My blog has general suggestions for where to look, but wouldn't it be nice if...
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