Adventure in Willow Chair Making

This isn’t really art but I had to put it somewhere.

In the spring of this year I had the urge to try something new. I’ve always like the look of rustic furniture so I decided I’d try to make a chair from willow.  I did a little searching on the internet but ended up largely making up the process as I went along. I suspect some or all of it may have been done before they found a better way.

Down by a lake near us is a large area where the right willows grow- about 6-8 ft long first or second year growth. I cut them and strip the leaves off. Over a period of a couple days I stripped them of their bark, which peels of easily. For what I did the stripped of bark was useful to temporarily tie the willow together and in place while it dried. I would use a strong string were I to do it again.

First I tried to make a chair without a form to shape the legs and hold them in position while they dry. This was a bust- the outcome looked OK but didn’t have any strength to it as I couldn’t put enough of the willows together to make it strong enough. Secondarily, the willow that I first cut was too thin.

I went back and cut more willow this time picking more stout pieces- where the skinny end was no smaller than a pencil.  Were I to do this again I would cut even thicker willows.

Since the freeform approach didn’t work I built a square form with a height of my kitchen chairs and a bottom in the corners for the willow to bottom out against.  I them bend the willows to make all four legs of the chair but left what would be the back open- I would put the back also if I did it again. For the legs from which the back would be attached I used fewer willows since putting in the back would add to the thickness. To make the center of the chair to sit on, I put maybe 6 particularly stout pieces  on the diagonal, 3 one way, 3 the other way. Most of the  bent pieces were cut to be slightly higher than the top of the form( maybe 1 in. max). I tied the legs into bundles with the willow bark, and tied any of the crossing pieces making the center of the chair to prevent them from moving to far while they dried. I put a board on top of the filled form and put bricks on it to get all the willows to be flush with the form.   These needed to dry several day before they were permanently formed and didn’t spring back up when the board was removed.

Finished Willow Chair

Willow Chair form

After the legs dried I made the back. Willows were placed in the form and crossed at different heights with several used to form the rounded back of the chair. The willows were tied in place with willow bark strips wherever they crossed and as much as needed to hold them in the rounded form of the back. I put the board back on and also used some heavy bricks to bend the backrest somewhat so it was not straight up and down. I allowed this to dry for a week or so before the next step.

After I could remove it from the form, I applied glue to bond the willows together to increase rigidity. Where willows crossed, I used a round file to produce a rounded notch to increase the contact area and applied glue to them. I bought some leather strips from Jo-Ann Fabrics and tied the leg bundles and the bonded willow crossing points. Below is a picture of the end result. Not great but not bad for a novice.

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Tags: bark, chair, chair back, chair leg, corner, form, willow