Blue Shed 2016

I will be showing new chairs at this years Blue Shed 2016 exhibition, open weekends and bank holidays in May.

My inspiration for the Blue Shed 2016 exhibition has come from a commission awarded to Sally Williams Architects.   Sally designed a contemporary extension to a traditional flint cottage.  I wanted to reflect the spirit of her design in two chairs, one rooted in the original period cottage and a second, contemporary chair that drew on the design and craft traditions of the first. My starting point was the traditional Windsor chair, continuously reinterpreted since its appearance in the 16h century.  Both my chairs share the same Windsor solid seat with saddle profile.  The first ‘traditional’ chair has the back and arm bow raised on a minimal row of turned spindles with sharply angled supports at the front.  The back rest style is familiar as the Windsor ‘Captains’ chair. The second ‘contemporary’ chair does away with the turned supports altogether.  The back and arm bow, supported now on an extension of the back legs, is similar in form to the first chair but is more organic and sculptured, typical of the mid twentieth century Danish designers. 

With their shared heritage, both chairs would fit equally comfortably in either the old or the new spaces of Sally’s design.