Easier Chair

Another 2 days' work on a single prop, but again, this one was a biggie. It's the only major piece of furniture in the cottage interior and has loomed large in my mind as a giant question of how I was to do it.

It's a cheat in that I bought the chair (for $10 (!) from a discount department store several years ago) You should have seen my glee at finding a ready made perfect-style upholstered chair for Rana to settle in while sipping tea in her home. It was pale green satin and a shy too large for the cottage scale however.

Dyeing the damask fabric was easy, I just doused it with tons of intense paints and pigment until it was for the most part a fit for Rana's interior palette of wines, ochres, and pinks. I used the dyed chair in a few test animations (see below's before shots) but avoided chopping it down for ages. 1. At one point I took the chair completely apart with the thought of using the pieces as patterns. I intended to reduce the fabric pieces on a copier, buy new fabric and build a chair from scratch from that exact pattern. Then I thought--wait, I'll just axe this guy down and refashion him. It'd be faster and easier and that's good right now.


2. I sawed off about 2" in the length of the arms and reduced the width by about the same. 3. I used Gorilla duct tape to reassemble the cut down pieces. 4. I cut down the original foam and taped it on as well. I took off about 1/2 HA! an inch off the height of the legs as well. The chair remained extremely sturdy surprisingly. 5. Then began the laborious task of re-tailoring the existing fabric pieces onto the newly smaller chair. 6. By the time I got to closing off the last part on the back I was able to use curved needles to stitch an invisible seam.

(A rough idea of the size change.) I believe that having the store bought chair to work from made the result better and more quickly done than if I'd started with nothing.

UPDATE: Completing Things (more on that concept later)

I'm delighted to report that workshop guest, Nicole did actually finish the artwork she started here and sent along photos of it! (It struck me how so rare and wonderful it is to see someone actually finish something they started without the grueling burdensome delay that drags on them for years. Ahem. Memememememeeeee) So, hats off to Nicole. I really love what she made. It represents to her a wonderful experience she had in China recently. And I especially love that when the little fabric flower lanterns she'd made here wouldn't fit inside the small shadow box, she simply added them on a dangling wire to the assemblage. Beautiful job, Nicole!

Goodnight from Halfland. Stay warm and cozy where you are.