Rocking Chair in English Cherry and Walnut with Danish Cord Seating

The rocking chair represents the perfect union of chair and sitter, joined in a symbiotic relationship to achieve a balanced and fluid motion that uses the stored energy from the rocking motion to both relax and restore. For the chair to be comfortable, the form of the chair must work in unison with the weight and motion of the sitter. The rocking motion itself creates significant dynamic forces. These forces inspire design ideas that try to balance the requirements of structural strength with lightness and simplicity of form.

The curved rockers themselves are laminated.  They are made up of 5 layers of cherry wood cut from a single piece of timber, glued and clamped in a mould that gives the rockers their flowing lines.  They are deliberately generous at the back and their form flattens off to provide stability at the very extreme of the back motion.  The joints onto the back legs are made up of further laminations of cherry and contrasting walnut which mirrors the jointing of the front legs to the arm rests.  The arm rests follow the curvature of the rockers so that in motion, they are each a reflection of the other.  The back rests are turned spindles which are individually delicate but combined, give structural strength.  Their strong straight vertical lines contrast with the curvature of the rockers and arms.  The head rest is made from solid cherry shaped for comfort.  The seat is woven using Danish paper cord, a traditional seating technique used by mid-20th century Danish designers, and provides an interesting textural contrast to the smoothness of the cherry frame.  The leading edge of the seat is curved down to take pressure off the front of the legs.  This creates an interesting three dimensional surface for the paper cord to flow over.                

Each rocking chair is individually created.