About The Project
This chair was made as my donation to the Boys and Girls Club of Rochester, Minnesota. Every February the club hosts the A Chair Affair fundraising gala. The gala is a prestigious black-tie social event, selling out over 500 tickets each year, A Chair Affair has raised millions of dollars for Rochester youth in need. Artisan-made chairs are auctioned at the gala, with the proceeds going to the Boys and Girls Club. This chair was the highest bidded chair at the 2023 gala.
Most of my work involves working with custom to design and build furniture to meet their needs and aesthetics. While this is very enjoyable, Alice was an opportunity to create purely from my design. I love working in curves, as seen here in Alice. The chair is asymmetrical and a bit quirky, like an elderly woman Alice I once knew.
The chair is made of Swiss pear, which is an uncommon yet lovely wood to work with. Like its North American counterpart cherry, Swiss pear gets a darker, richer, color as it oxidizes with UV light.
Because this was a one of a kind chair, and I didn’t have to worry about constructing a matching set, I made a lot of on the fly design decisions while constructing the chair. I first made a scale model to prove out my design approach, but the details of the leg splays and the curve and arch of the back rail were determined as I built the actual chair.
Photo Gallery
