The Windsor Chronicles Blog

The flow of news dried up as the weather gotten better. Either all the chairmakers in the world have gone fishing or they are out working in the garden.  

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The segment television filmed during the March 23 sack back class finally aired on Channel Six, Portland, ME. The producer told me it got delayed because of all the hype around the swine Flu. Its tough to get people interested in Windsor chairs when the media and government are telling us we’re all gonna die. 

If you would like to see the segment, use this link.  http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=104334

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I did hear from His Grace Ralph Quick regarding a presentation he and Caron did for a local woodworking club. 

“Greetings Mike,     Caron and I had a really good time at the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild where we gave a presentation on Windsor chairs. We were told afterwards by several of the members that they will be contacting you soon about taking a chair class. They all went “ahhh” when we steam bent the arms that I will be using on future NYC Bow Backs.

We did a sort of “hands-on” thing. We let several of them use our hand brace and spoon bit to make the holes in the chair that we made over the weekend. The chair was 75% completed already, so it was mostly a show and tell sort of thing; dry fitted for everyone to see what the end result would be. 

One of the KC members is a past WI student named Mike, but I cannot think of his last name. He said he was only one chair away from becoming a Knight even though he has been to several of the classes already. He did the same thing as I did, took all the wrong classes first. Ha! Ha!

We handed out a lot of the EAL magazines with the article Caron contributed to. It was the article about Writing Arm Chairs; the October 2008 issue. We handed out  business cards and brochures. We let everyone know that we link to your web site. So I do expect several of them to be calling you before too long. 

Well, I better get back to work. Caron has me getting ready for the show in Virginia next week.  Tell Sue and everyone we said hello and hope to see you all soon.  Ralph, Caron & Windsor”

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I am going to take the old vaudevillian advice and “Always leave them laughing.” Here is another chairmaker joke. 

Four woodworkers are falsely arrested in France for a capital crime.

 

The first, a Windsor chairmaker, uses his charm and intelligence in deliberations with authorities. He is quickly released.  The other three are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to the guillotine.  With all appeals exhausted, judgment day has come. 

For his last words, the second woodworker stands up and proclaims “I am a period furniture maker, and I have Duncan Phyfe watching over me.”  He is put head into the guillotine, the latch is thrown and nothing happens.  A complete inspection is performed with no flaw found.  Historically, this was considered a sign from above and, honoring that, he is released. 

The third woodworker is brought up and proclaims “I make Mission furniture, and I have Gustav Stickley watching over me.”  He is put into the guillotine and again, nothing happens.  Another inspection and he too is released. 

The final woodworker walks up the stairs, looks up and says “I am a Shaker chair maker, and if you loosen those two bolts, file that lever, and grease the track, that contraption will work better.” 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 10:37 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.