I Build Willow Chairs for Pleasure and Profit

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THE ARMS

When you're ready to begin work on the arms, find a willow about as big around as a man's thumb and four to five feet long, trim it to remove any side branches or enlarged buds, then grab the piece by each end and bend it around into a sharp curve to check for weak and/or stiff parts. If the curve is uniform, you can consider the rod usable.

Next, stand your chair upright, kneel in front of it, and tuck the larger end of the willow behind the middle of the chair's lowest front crossmember. Bend the switch back against the uppermost front crosspiece so that it touches this crossmember four inches from the corner of the chair, then bring the small end of the bowed rod down to the large backrest support (as I'm doing on the chair's left side in Photo 5). When the willow has the shape you want, nail it down.

Before you add another rod to that side, repeat the above procedure on the opposite side of the chair. (It's important to alternate from side to side as you add willows, since the tension created by one completed arm would—unless balanced by equal tension from the other arm?cause the entire frame to become distorted.)

OK. Now add a second willow to one of the arms, outside the first willow, and nail it to the first one every few inches so that both assume the same shape. (If there's any doubt about nail length, hammer toward the outside of the arm. That way, the third willow will cover any fastener points that protrude through the second one.) Keep adding switches?first to one side, then the other?until each arm contains five rods altogether. That's all there is to it!

THE OVAL HEADREST

After the arms are finished, you'll be ready to begin work on the headrest. For this, you'll need your longest?and best—willows.

Start by bending an eight nine-foot-long rod into a circle and tucking its ends down inside the uppermost side rungs of the seat frame (Photo 6). Bring the ends down until the long rod touches the chair's arms and lies against the horns of the top-mounted backrest support piece. (The willow should lock into place, but may tend to spring loose.) Now nail the long, arched branch to [1] the horns of the backrest support, [2] the outside of each arm, and [3] the inside of the seat frame.

Next, lay another?longer?headrest willow down next to the first one. Position it (and all following pieces) so that the finished headrest will slant forward slightly at its apex (as shown in Photo 7). Finally, nail this branch to the outside of each arm, the inside of the seat frame, and?every six inches or so?to the first headrest willow. Repeat this procedure with three more long, slender rods (each one slightly longer than the one before) . . . and you're ready to go on to the seat.

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