First | Previous Picture | Next Picture | Last | Thumbnails
WILLOW CHAIRS AND SETTLES
tastic form, but willow furniture is essentially of basket construction. Our idea in making the kind of willow furniture illustrated here was to gain something based upon the same principles of construction that characterize our oak furniture; that is, to secure a form that should suggest the simplest basket work and the flexibility of lithe willow branches and yet be as durable as any of the heavy oak furniture which is emphatically of wood construction.
Consequently these pieces are basketry pure and simple and have an elastic spring under the pressure of the body that suggests the flexibility of baskets such as are woven by the fireside or on the back porch at the edge of the garden. The making of willow furniture as a handicraft is rather a hobby with us, for willow is a material beloved of the craftsman and the work is very interesting and comparatively easy to do. The trouble is that so many people .are inclined to overdo it and to make out of woven willow the kind of furniture that demands wood construction. Seat furniture alone is permissible in willow and yet we frequently see tables, racks and stands of various kinds, and even the front of a bureau or a dresser, made of this material. Such misuse is a pity, the
more that it tends to create a prejudice again against willow furniture as a whole.
The pieces shown here hold in their beauty of form and color evidences of the personal interest of the worker. The willow has been so finished that the surface has the sparkle seen in the thin branches of the growing tree as it becomes lustrous with the first stirring of the sap. This natural sparkle on the surface of willow has all
VERY LARGE WILLOW SETTLE MADE AFTER A DESIGN THAT WE HAVE FOUND
FACTORY IN RELATION TO THE REGULAR CRAFTSMAN FURNITURE OF OAK.
WILLOW CHAIR MADE ON A LOWER AND BROADER MODEL.
the intangible silvery shimmer of
water in moonlight. This is lost
absolutely when the furniture made of
it is covered with the usual opaque enamel, which not only hides the luster of the
surface but gives the effect of a stiff uncompromising construction in which the pliable-
ness of the basket weave is entirely oblit-
erated and all the possible interesting varia-
tions of tone are lost under the smooth surface.
We finish our willow furniture in two colors; one gives the general impression of green, but it is really a variation of soft wood tones, brown and green, light and dark, as the texture of the withes has been smooth or rough. In this way the silvery luster of the willow is left undisturbed and the color beneath is like that of fresh young bark. The other color is golden brown in which there is also a suggestion of spring-like gray and green.
MOST SATIS