Make a Chair From a Tree – Jennie Alexander

Make a Chair From a Tree – 3rd Edition. Author, Jennie Alexander.

In 2014, Jennie Alexander somewhat reluctantly agreed to a third edition of her 1978 seminal book on green woodworking, Make a Chair From a Treea book that launched the careers of thousands of woodworkers and helped ignite a green woodworking movement in this country.Her reluctance wasnt due to a lack of passion for the books subjectthe simple but gorgeous object that we now call a Jennie Chair had been an obsession of hers for decades. She simply didnt know if she was physically and mentally up to the task of essentially starting from scratch on a new bookshe had learned so much since the first two editions were published that this is an almost entirely new book. Thus, “Make a Chair From a Tree: Third Edition” is the culmination of a lifetime’s work on post-and-rung chairs, covering in detail every step of the green-wood chairmaking processfrom splitting and riving parts to making graceful cuts with a drawknife and spokeshave, to brace-and-bit boring for the solid joinery, to hickory-bark seat weaving.

With the help of Larry Barrett, one of her devoted students, she worked on this new version of the book until just weeks before her 2018 death. Larry polished Jennie’s final manuscript, then built a chair in Jennie’s shop using her techniques and tools as we took many of the photographs for this book. Nathaniel Krause (another of Jennies devoted students), wove the hickory seat for this book. Longtime friend and collaborator Peter Follansbee helped to edit the text into the intensely technical (but easy to understand) and personal (but not maudlin) words that ended up in this third edition.We know Jennie would be delighted by the contributions from the people she taught and who, in turn, inspired her. (Though we also suspect she’d say we should just start rewriting the book at the beginning. again.)

Like all Lost Art Press books, Make a Chair from a Tree: Third Edition is produced and printed in the United States. Unlike the original edition, the Lost Art Press version is in full color and the book is hardback. The text is printed on acid-free paper in signatures. These signatures are sewn and reinforced with fiber tape. The interior is then wrapped in hardcover boards and cotton cloth.

Hardcover, 184 Pages

ISBN: 978-1-95469-702-7

ISBN

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