The following are the first chair designs I experimented with, in chronological order.

Santa Cruz Lounger. 2002. Edition of 4. Bent-laminated walnut seat strips with a rectilinear maple frame. You can behold my obvious fascination at the time with Arts & Crafts-style exposed joinery/wedged through-tenons. The flexible seat could pivot up and down from the front and rested on an adjustable leather strap. Square ebony plugs capped the screws ala Greene & Greene.

 

 

Saratoga Chair. 2003. Single edition. Claro walnut, maple, ebony. This was another exploration of bent lamination and the kind of fussy joinery that most young woodworkers are seduced by.

 

 

Palo Alto Dining Chair. 2003. Edition of 2. Claro walnut, western maple. This is my first work engineering a cantilevered seat, and the back could pivot to accommodate different sitting positions.

 

 

Cupertino Box. 2004. Single edition. Curly western maple, walnut. The Cupertino box was a simple, dovetailed box that could be flipped on it’s base to offer a sculpted seat, or a flat table surface.

 

 

Los Altos Highback. 2004. Edition of 2. (One version in Claro walnut, one in eastern walnut.) I wanted to revisit a bent-laminated seat, but extend it high enough to support the head. Similar to the Santa Cruz Lounger, the Los Altos could pivot from the front seat stretcher, but in this case could sit at different reclining positions on wood/steel pins under the seat. With the natural give of the thin laminations, this chair is easily the most comfortable all-wood chair I’ve ever sat in.