seanwoolsey.com

Sometimes in life I do things just to see if I can do it. Just to prove that if other people can do something that I can as well. It’s a way of motivating myself into doing things that I might deem as impossible or very hard. This was one of those instances.

I have always deeply admired the work of George Nakashima, the architect, turned furniture designer after teaching himself how to work with wood in a Japanese internment camp in 1942. I  just finished making my first chair, designed by Nakashima himself, called the Conoid chair. It is out of solid black walnut, typically with hickory spindles, but I wanted black spindles so I ebonized the walnut on mine. It took over 60 hours of literally, blood, sweat, and lots of dust. I made some mistakes and learned a lot in the process. Here are some photos of my first chair. All good photos taken by Ryan Haack, all others off my phone.

I read this quote a while ago and it has always resonated with me.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”-Theodore Roosevelt