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Featured Windsor Chairmaker
Jonathon (Jock) Jones |
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Jonathan (Jock) Jones is probably the
only Windsor chair maker in the Intermountain West. He and his wife, Bonnie
live in Spring City, a small village in Central Utah where he makes chairs
in his small one person shop and teaches chair making in his shop and at
a nearby college.
Jock had been a hobbyist wood worker
most of his life and says he had always been fascinated with Windsor chairs.
But their construction was baffling. Everything on them is round and curvy.
There is bent wood. The seats are deeply carved and saddled. They are a plethora
of complicated compound angles. There are no flat surfaces or 90 degree angles.
There are no reference points from which to measure. With his limited knowledge
of woodworking he was puzzled about how you make things that are not square
and flat with dozens of compound angle holes and bent wood? Jock says: "Windsor
chair construction was a mysterious, unfathomable, arcane craft that was
not practiced anymore. There were few books or articles about them and the
ones that did exist scared me off. They were full of long dissertations about
green wood joinery and duck bill mortises and other peculiar and unfathomable
mysteries.
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There were pictures of old guys sitting
in the woods on worn out shaving horses building chair parts with a spoke
shave. No power tools! I was fascinated, intimidated and discouraged
because I live in the west where there were no chair builders and few if
any one knew how to build them. In addition, green wood (oak, hickory, maple
etc.) is simply not available……Windsor chair making is an Eastern
sport.".
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But then a fateful but serendipitous
event happened. Both Jock and his wife were forced into early and unwanted
retirement due to a corporate mergers and health issues. So they decided
to travel to the East and learn how to make Windsor chairs.
That was the first time he had ever seen
a good hand made Windsor chair. Jock exclaims: "My oh my what chairs! I had
no idea how light weight, delicate and beautiful they were. They were not
lifeless, heavy and clunky like factory made chairs. They had character.
They were alive. They were sensual. They invited you to caress them. They
beckoned you to sit in them. They appeared as though you could dance around
the room with them. They were not immovable ponderous dead things planted
on the floor. They were up on their toes ready to pirouette, boogie woogie
or allemande left as soon as the music started!
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His fascination with Windsor chairs turned
into a passionate love affair. He fell in love with the design and construction
process. He learned they are not difficult to make. He quickly learned that
chair making is not an unfathomable arcane craft known only to a few. Green
wood is available for those willing to travel east to obtain it. Making round
things with no flat surfaces and dozens of compound angle holes is not an
old fashioned outdated craft. Steam bending wood is simple and within the
reach of anyone with a desire to do so. Carving spindles and chair parts
with nothing more than a drawknife and spoke shave while sitting on a shaving
horse is far easier and more enjoyable than setting up complicated jigs to
carve wood with a noisy, dusty and dangerous power tools.
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So Jock and Bonnie returned to Utah,
sold their house in the Salt Lake area and bought a 100 year old farm house
in historic Spring City, Utah where he built his dream shop and they started
their post retirement life anew making wonderful, delicate Windsor chairs.
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View more of Jock's work, on his website:
http://www.jockswindsors.com
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