“
The most important thing is that you love what you are doing, and the second that you are not afraid of where your next idea will lead.
”
—Charles Eames
handmade gift
I wanted to give my brother and sister-in-law a thoughtful wedding gift they would both cherish. Woodworking has always been one of my creative outlets so designing a custom rocking chair seemed like a fun challenge to take on.
design details
Inspired by mid-century Danish furniture designs, I started sketching a few layouts. I landed on a simple, elegant construction with softened geometric edges. Mahogany was selected for workability, warmth and beautiful grain. Using a common Danish method of cushion support, I designed an elastic webbing matrix which would be created by routed channels along the edges of the seat.
building the rocker
Building the legs tested my patience but proved to be super rewarding. Initially, the plan was to steam bend a 1” x 6” mahogany plank then rip into two identical rocker legs. After two failed attempts, resulting in rocker legs that didn’t really “rock,” I revised my approach.
I decided to instead utilize a cold layup method with curved mold halves. Ripping 1/8” thick strips of mahogany and using a CNC workstation I created a curved plywood mold with the desired rocker profile. I successfully repeated the layup twice to produce two identical rocking legs.
final touches
Enlisting my wife’s help to cut and sew cushions, I continued to focus on final sanding, poly coating and assembly. We were thrilled with how it came out and my brother and sister-in-law are putting the chair to good use in their home.
