Cherry rocking chair for a writer’s study

The brief

Edith spends six hours a day writing in her sun-room. She'd tried four production rockers and bounced off all of them. She wanted something that fit her exactly, that would feel familiar by year five.

The form

A Sam Maloof-influenced rocker, scaled to a 5'2" sitter. The seat is hand-carved to her measurements, the back tilted three degrees more open than the standard.

The joinery

All hand-cut: through-tenons at the seat-to-leg joints, sliding dovetails for the back slats, a continuous bent lamination from arm through to the headrest. No nails, no screws, no glue at the visible joints (the slat dovetails are pinned with hidden ash pegs).

The finish

Soap finish, the old Scandinavian recipe. The cherry will mellow into a deep orange-brown over the next eighteen months and never need stripping.