Celtic Lightning

Celtic Lightning is a project that I did while working at Bald Mountain Rustics in Upstate New York. While working there I learned about the anatomy of chairs, proper seat angles, ergonomic seat curves, decorative edge carving, root structure bases, and Lichtenberg burning. I wanted to combine all of my new found skills into a capstone project of sorts. A chair that encompassed everything that I had learned. At the time Bald Mountain Rustics had only done one other rocking chair. I chose to take elements of the original design and make it my own. This was right around the time that I had discovered Lichtenberg burning. This is a process that involves using two probs to electrify the wood. I burned the seat to resemble a root base that goes up the back of the chair and blossoms into an electrified canopy of leaves at the top. The paws of the arm rests are carved to look like root masses that grow up the arms into long tree branches of Lichtenberg figure. The back of the chair is supported by a 150 year old twisted lilac burl that was discovered on the property. This was an amazing project that was an absolute joy to work on. My thanks and appreciation goes out to my teacher Steve Bowers of Bald Mountain Rustics. I am grateful for all that he taught me and my experience there shines through in all of my work today.