A Sam Maloof Inspired Rocking Chair; Walnut Rocker #3 by Mark A. DeCou

The landscape photos are making me homesick. Oh, and the chair is nice too.
Just kidding, the chair is gorgeous. Not kidding about the land scape, though. My wife grew up in Wichita and I grew up north and a little east of Russell in the metropolis of Osborne.

-- CutNRun - So much wood, so many trails, so little time

Sweet very nice chair.

-- David '65

As usual Mark, brilliant work!

-- "That Government is Best that Governs The Least."-Jefferson

Beautiful Mark!
Just as good, or even better than Sam Maloof.

I love the grain figure on the back of the backrest.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

very nice work, and the burl is a nice touch.

-- "That which has in itself the greatest use, possesses the greatest beauty." - Unknown Shaker

A marvolous piece of art work! The back is an outstanding flow of design and grain! WOW!

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Maloof inspired DeCou. Stunning piece of craftsmanship. Typical Decou … wow, Hey weeds and bush is weeds and bush take that inside and get some more pictures of those laminated rockers.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Mark a beautiful chair. Nice job on the construction. I like the sculptured look on the back. The grain in the upper back looks great.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Beautiful work Mark , Very impressive !!!

-- John in Belgrave ,(Slideshow ) http://cid-69bce320c6d8b119.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Extreme%20Birdhouses/P1030026.JPG?ref=2 (Website) http://www.extremebirdhouse.com

The Maloof is my favorite rocker design of all,but this is really a great interpretation.The grain is so inviting,and that shaping on the back is fantastic…its the best feature of all.

This took you awhile to build and much sanding to blend it all together.
Very nicely done Mark.

-- " If I can make it,so can you" Andy in Oregon

Awesome Rocker Mark!! It seems as though you get to make all the things I dream of making but don’t have no time or money for. Now you done made me jealous.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Beautiful rocker Mark … you have been busy !

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

mark, the chair is excelent, such a beautiful chair, i like the photo’s ,makes me want to get into that rocker and take a nap….and after all the hard work, you might want to also, would love to hear of the customers comments…of coarse that is part of your pay….

-- The Grizzone

Hi Mark

You did a wonderful job on this chair. I really like how you did the back! Thank for sharing.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Well done Mark

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Great Lookin Rocker Mark

-- Jim, Kentucky

Love the use of the natural character in the wood!!! A true work of art!

-- Fred.... Poconos, PA ---- Chairwright in the making ----

Spectacular use of grain, and fantastic photos as well.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Very nice, how did you form the curves on the back of the chair. I haven’t seen this before, it is a unique feature and probably a lot of more work.

Al

-- Al Holstein

Amazing! Some day I hope I have the skill to do something like that. Thanks for posting.

-- Terry Roswell, L.A. (Lower Alabama) "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans."

Fantastic!! What are the light lines in the seat?

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Thanks everyone for the compliments, a real encouragement.

Answers to above questions, and some “bonus” material:

> Sam Maloof: after spending most of the summer studying his chair photos again, I’m still in awe of what this tiny man with a big heart could do with wood. I did learn this time that I would really like to have three helpers to do all the carving and sanding, and all I had to do was rough out the pieces and point which guy to do which job I didn’t like. I’m trying to be funny, Sam started out working by himself just like I do. But, having some dedicated helpers would definitely mean a guy could get a lot more chairs done. Someone wrote me after my posting of my first rocker, that Sam told him that the Maloof Team could build a rocker in three days. I can’t, that’s for sure. I spent that much time just hand sanding with 220 grit and #0000 Steel Wool, and that was after sanding with the Oribital and hand sanding with 120 grit. It is a lot of sanding….. All told, I have about 250 hours each in my rockers, and cut up about 120bdft of wood per chair to get the pieces I wanted to use for each component of the chair. I do have a lot of scraps left over to use for something else though.

> Hard & Soft Lines: what you don’t notice in a Maloof Chair on the first few minutes of studying a photo, is the hard and soft lines. Sam was a master at a lot of things, and the running of a carved hard line to run throughout his chairs was just another of his unique talents. He was also a master at positive and negative space sculpture. His chairs aren’t just boards glued together, but he just made everything flow together, and the spaces between the wood (negative space) is just as pretty as the wood lines (positive space). If you just router and sand off all of the “points’ you miss out on what is really the most notable thing about a rocker Sam built. If you don’t have the hard lines sculpted in, I think you’d just as well go to Cracker Barrel and buy one of their porch rockers, it’s a lot cheaper, just look for one that has all of the pieces glued together with the right side up (they aren’t all that way). The hard lines run your eye up and down, and around as you study the chair. One of the best statements I’ve read in years about Sam’s work was made by a famous blind man, that only “saw” his chair through feeling it with his hands. I think the hard and soft lines are a vital part of what makes a Maloof chair a Maloof. Many folks can cut shapes to parts that looks sort of like a Maloof, but it is those painstaking hours spent running a hard line up the leg, around the arm, up and over the crown rail and back down the other side of the chair, that really gives the piece something special. I was taught in Marc Adams’ class that I should strive to make the hard lines run as far and long as I could without breaking. So, that’s what I try to do.

> True, these chairs are a lot of work, and take quite a bit of material. I could never have learned how to do a rocking chair like this without some instruction. Pouring over and measuring the photos in Sam Maloof’s book for a year didn’t help me a bit to learn how. In fact, the more I studied Maloof’s book photos, the more scared and intimidated I became. So, I finally broke down, and spent a little more than a week in Indiana at Marc Adams’ school taking his “Sculpted Rocking Chair Class.” In the class, I learned things about woodworking that I had never seen before, and I grew up with a wood shop teacher for a dad who is a master woodworker and carver. These rocking chairs are just not normal woodworking, and Marc shows how to break the project down into chewable bites, and I highly recommend spending a week with him.

> Photos: I decided to try and do something with the photos that was more than just pictures of a finished project. I’m not all that creative of a photographer, but it’s something I’ve been trying to learn more about. I had a strangely unique day for Kansas in August, overcast and cool. So, I ran outside and took photos. Once the sun popped out of the clouds, I ran that rocker back into the shop quickly.

> Landscape: These photos are taken just on the South side of my workshop, looking toward my neighbor’s property. He owns all the pretty hills and trees, and pays the property taxes on them, which have grown a lot in the 8 years we’ve lived here in the Flint Hills. The Tall Grass National Preserve is a few miles to the East of me, and that has spurred a lot of new interest in this Hilly Prairie.

> Customer’s response: I will deliver these over the weekend, but I anticipate that probably the first comment will be, “Why did it take 18 months to get my chairs?”

> White lines in the seat are Maple veneer, something I did on my first Maloof-Inspired rocker, and the customer for this chair and it’s mate, wanted it done again.

> Back Spindles: I’m a “firm-lumbar” guy, and I don’t believe in flexible spindles. A lot of time goes into fitting the lumbar curve to the position it needs to be, but it makes such a difference in the feel of the chair. Having that detail flex would just destroy the support our backs naturally need, especially as we get older. I can see why folks like cutting the curve, or bending the curve in a narrow strip, as it would be a lot quicker to build. These spindles take a long time to do. The Burled Walnut Veneer on the front of the Spindles is a detail I tried in my first rocking chair. I cut the veneer to the shape and Inlay it. It’s a little time consuming also, but it really makes the spindles look different than if they were just straight grained walnut.

> The wavy curves on the back of the crown rail are simply carved in. Again, it’s a detail that I did on my first rocker, and this customer wanted me to do that detail again. I really like it, but each time I’ve done it, I wonder if it is worth the effort. I appreciate that several of you noted it, and that makes the tired fingers feel better. I cut the crown rail curve on the frontside of the board with the bandsaw, and leave the back of the board flat. Then, I just carve the back, leaving the bumps, going carefully around the Spindle Holes which are drilled in place while the Board is still flat and squared. It’s easier the second time, and then again easier the third time. The special wood grain of that board accented it pretty well. I had to cut that crown rail board out of the middle of a big plank. Seems like a big waste of wood until you see the effect in it’s final form. the wavy bumps on the back of the crown rail is not something that Sam Maloof ever did that I can find, but was something I decided to try. When I took the Sculpted Rocking Chair class with Marc Adams in the year 2000, he said that “The Next rocker will be your best….” meaning that as you do each rocker, you get better. That is true for me, as I do like these two rockers I did this summer better than my first one I did a few years back.

> And this last one for TopamaxSurvivor:
After reading your “by-line” I think you’ll agree with what a wise person once wrote, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”
I would never have survived starting this silly business if I had not paid off all debts in 1997. I have a tiny shop and don’t have many tools I’d love to have, but I don’t think I would have survived the past 18 months if I had debt to pay off, and the coming year or two may be even harder. My advice is to live simple and cheap, get back to basics, put in a garden, sell what you don’t need, hunker down, treat folks right, keep your nose clean, get lots of sleep, go to church on Sunday, and work harder than you’ve ever worked before. The rest is up to God. And, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a better woodworker than I am a businesman, so what do I know?

thanks,
M

-- Mark DeCou - American Contemporary Craft Artisan - www.decoustudio.com

Very nice Mark! I especially like the wave grain match on the back of the crown rail. Excellent!

Master craftsmanship. This is exquisite. The back is strikingly bold. It must be hard to let go of a beautiful piece of art like this. Thanks for an enlightening post.

-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.

nice setting…amazing chair!

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...