Primitive Experimental Flat Pack Windsor Chair in Bone

2026
Salvage red oak & bay laurel, wood bleach, white wash, wood filler, shellac, semi-rigid plastic, furniture hardware, 95 ½” x ¼” x 6tpi bandsaw blade (qty 2)

A physical representation of America’s decline, or something along those lines.

Red oak (from a table Joseph found on the street) and bay laurel (from Doug’s old studio) make up the spindles and seat, respectively. 100% carved on the band saw, using tools and techniques arguably available to early American carpenters.

The seat uses a carving technique pioneered by Sam Maloof to remove large masses of wood with a bandsaw. The bone-carving technique is largely borrowed from cordwainers, of all people.

Dowel connections use hanger bolts and threaded inserts to join the two sides through tapered holes. Bushings use a cast-in-place semi-rigid plastic (similar in hardness to a skateboard wheel) to create a stable cartilage joint inspired by the thinking behind the Eames’s shock mount. The reasoning for this bushing being 1) It’s essentially impossible to create a true enough tapered dowel on a band saw to make this joint work well, 2) Bones have cartilage at the joints, and 3) I wanted a shifty seat reminiscent of rickety old Windsor chairs.

Developing the cast-in-place bushing was the greatest hurdle. The solution relies on sealing the porous oak, and creating a sleeved silicone mold with an internal taper congruent to the taper of their respective holes.

Wood bleach, white wash, and a dead flat clear coat combines with warm tones of wood filler and a cloudy semi-rigid plastic to create an unapologetically folksy, and remarkably coherent, bone.

What you end up with is a Windsor chair that can be disassembled into a pile of bones in a few minutes. Or a pile of bones that can be assembled into a Windsor chair in a few minutes. Perfect for the increasingly nomadic masses.

Someone had to do it.

Shown at
Auction Show, AUTOBODY autobody, Billings Auction, 2026

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