Frank Howarth is a maker who possesses the dual talents of woodworking and filmmaking. In this video, he uses stop-motion to show the construction of a spiffy lawn chair, from rough hewing the wood, to final assembly and staining.
He took 12,000 frames to assemble this, and did all the sound design in post-production. There’s something about it that’s whimsical — like the chair’s components are trying hard to put themselves together. There’s also a sort of haunting feeling as if the chair is being built by a mysterious invisible man.
It’s a novel take on a woodworking tutorial. There are no human bodies to get in the way of the action, and as a result, safety concerns the viewer may have are stripped away. The result is just unadulterated construction.
12 thoughts on “A Chair That Builds Itself”
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The way you use the jointer looks a little different than what I’m used to (according to this video, anyway). Is there a reason for that? You are using the wood efficiently, leaving minimal waste and I love the furniture cart. Where did you get that, btw?
If a chair is going to build itself it should wear eye protection.
Sweet! I love that monster bandsaw and the shots from the wood’s point of view. I also love the sound elements. Like when the box joint hinges on itself… it wouldn’t have made that sound as he filmed it in stop motion, but he did it a second time, recorded it, and put the sound over the top. Very cool. I wouldn’t have minded if a human showed up periodically in this either. DiResta’s stop motion stuff resembles this and I enjoy watching the stop-motion depiction of the tedium that the maker goes through.
Very nice. In places it has a very 80s feel to it. Like something we would have watched on Sesame Street.
Simon
That’s true! Old Sesame St had so much cool stop-motion stuff using everyday objects. Teeny Little Super Guy, that operatic orange, etc…
I had to go look that up again, the Operatic Orange. I remember that!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8TqOTe3ODc
Simon