by Elia Bizzarri | Oct 14, 2024 | Craft Films, No-Glue joints, Samuel Wing Book Project | 13 Comments
I have finished writing my book about Samuel Wing. Sure, there's still editing to be done, but that never ends. The Lost Art Press folks will be here in February to photograph the book and we'll go from there. Jeff Lefkowitz just sent me the proofs...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jul 4, 2024 | Chair Stories, Classes, Samuel Wing Book Project | 4 Comments
I've been gone for what seems like forever. In the beginning of June, my wife and I went on vacation for a week with the ultimate goal of Eric Cannizzaro's shop in Vermont. There I taught a green woodworking class with Eric for a week. It's a pretty idyllic...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 28, 2024 | Samuel Wing Book Project | 3 Comments
It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog. It seems that spending hours each day sitting in front of a computer writing a book, limits my motivation for sitting in front of a computer writing a blog post. Oh well. The book is coming along great...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 20, 2023 | Classes, Samuel Wing Book Project | 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 | May 8, 2022 | Samuel Wing Book Project, Sprinpole Lathe | 2 Comments
A few days ago I picked up the spikes for my new lathe from blacksmith Peter Ross. He seemed to enjoy making them: "People don't want work this rough very often, but I was trained to make reproductions like this." Peter thinks the hardware was make by the Dominys -...
by Elia Bizzarri | Apr 25, 2022 | Samuel Wing Book Project, Sprinpole Lathe | 1 Comment
Last fall I had the joy of spending a couple hours in the Dominy shop at Winturtur to measure their Springpole Lathe. I've finally started building a copy of it, for use in the book on early 19th Century chairmaking that I'm writing. A local sawmill gave me a pine...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 13, 2022 | Samuel Wing Book Project | 1 Comment
This is one of the most popular questions I get asked. I never know how to answer it. Usually I say, "About 30 hours for a Continuous Arm chair, including 8 coats of finish." But the truth is I haven't a clue. I have no interest in tracking my...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 2, 2022 | Samuel Wing Book Project | 1 Comment
In the months after I last posted about my book project, I read what remains of Samuel Wing's account books and spent some time comparing measurements. I compared my tracings and measurements of the red loop back labeled "WING" at Independence Hall with my...
by Elia Bizzarri | Sep 11, 2021 | Samuel Wing Book Project | 14 Comments
I’ve started getting my act together for my book project and I have a couple puzzles to figure out. As a reminder, I’m building two-dozen copies of this chair in Independence Hall’s collection, hopefully in about 140 hours: The chair has four dents in the bow...
by Elia Bizzarri | Sep 9, 2021 | Samuel Wing Book Project | 1 Comment
I just got back from a three week trip, equal parts vacation, research trip and photography experiment. Last winter I signed a book contract about early 19th. Century chairmaking with Lost Art Press. This trip was the first step on the book – I spent a week at Old...
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