Hans Wegner Chair

Ah, my lovely chair. Now resplendent in it's new home in our huge bedroom in rural New Zealand. It looks out across the garden to our forest.

My blind restorer did in fact let me stay with him while he worked, 9 hours in fact. I sketched the process, he felt his way around the chair and tried to explain the process to me - a collection of the odd words (mostly danish), hand signals, his wife translating whenever she popped down with a warming cup of tea.

...making a jig for the chair, tying it to the workbench to stablise it for the weaving process

I photographed him while he worked - over 350 images capturing every step of the process. We had the odd slip up when the twine was caught or not where it should be, I had to take his hand and guide him to the trouble spot, he would humph and say "tak", then untie to the trouble spot and start again, so patient. He was such a lovely man and his wife, a wonderful warm and kind woman. Thoroughly enjoyed my day out. They were both completely surprised that I wanted to spend an entire day with them, noone had done that before.

It is a dying art and it will be a sad day when it is only in the factories they can complete this complex weave. Even sadder when the factory stops producing, although with Danish design so well respected and coveted worldwide, I can't see that happening.

I will create a photo book with my sketches for them both, (I'm embarrassed that I haven't done it yet), he will be retiring soon and while he is clinically blind, he can see things enlarged several hundred times. It is something his family can see and appreciate also. Well, I hope so anyway. He is an artisan of the old school.

Here are some photos.

...a corner detail at the start

...feeling his way along the back edge

By the time we were finished, it was a howling storm outside, pouring rain and gale winds. We had to wrap it in plastic and tie it, it was an effort against the wind to get it into the car. A mad dash to get home from Glastrup to Niva, drop off the chair then back to Billerup to pick up the boys. A bit crazy but that is my life.