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,...
Classes
18th Century Loop Back Chairmaking Class
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. ...
Make a Wheelbarrow with me and Peter Ross
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. ...
Samuel Wing Chair Class
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,...
My First Chair Class in Three Years
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...
Dave Sawyer
by Elia Bizzarri | Sep 21, 2022 | Classes | 6 Comments
"I was talking with Dave Sawyer last week and I asked him if you could go work with him. He said 'yes.'" I was standing in Curtis Buchanan's garden, helping him pick vegetables. I had been apprenticing with Curtis for six years and he was worried that I was...
Rare Treadle Lathes for Sale
by Elia Bizzarri | Aug 26, 2022 | Classes | 1 Comment
My blacksmith friend Peter Ross called last week. "I bought a couple lathes in an auction. Could you help me move them this afternoon?" This can be a fearsome request, for Peter has a habit of buying machinist lathes weighing in the thousands of...
Growing a Loop Back Arm Chair
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 25, 2022 | Chair Stories, Classes | 5 Comments
As most of you know, I'm at Curtis Buchanan's designing a Loop Back Arm chair. On the second day we had a visitor from NC, Reid Gamble who has been apprenticing with laddarback chairmaker Lyle Wheeler. First we bored for the bent stretcher. Curtis had to climb...
Curtis, Eric and I
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 23, 2022 | Chair Stories, Classes | 3 Comments
I am spending the next few days visiting with Curtis and Marilyn Buchanan. Eric Cannizzaro is here too. During the day we're working an a new loop back arm chair design for which Curtis hopes to publish a set of plans. At night, we are eating Marilyn's good food and...
A Cold Sunday Night
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 27, 2021 | Chair Stories, Classes | 2 Comments
Yesterday, my father-in-law and I delivered a set of five chairs for Josh and his wife's new house. We met at a horse park and transferred the blanket-wrapped chairs into Josh's car. As I wrapped the chairs last week, I remembered this story: It was a...
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