This wormy chestnut bar was built in 1976-77 by John Hilley Custom Furniture Design in . In 1978 the year I had worked for John Hilley I was part of the design team, including John, the client and myself to come up with an idea for the nine bar stools for the bar area. I did several hand sketched renderings that were eventually approved. Later I started on the full scale renderings and templates to begin the meticulous fabrication process. My templates and forms provided me an exact yet simplified method to get a quick start of the production of all nine stools at one time. The nine large 9″ diameter by 30″ length turnings were done by Rich’s Woodturning in Miami Fl. The square blanks started out as a multilayered and staggered, random length glue up and then again stack glued, first, ten pieces wide and then ten pieces deep. I first started with a blank round turning and went all the way to a carved spiral. Mostly done with simple hand power tools such as a router, a drill press and a lot of hand sanding. Down the center of the spiral is a 1″ steel rod covered by a 2″ hollow copper pipe. A 1″ copper pipe was used as a foot rest, compressed to an oval and filled with a liquid epoxy for added strength. The outer layer of the curved back is comprised of slightly tapered pieces,which were applied in a dimensional pattern that following the design throughout the entire bar. There were over 2,000 individual blocks in each stool all glued together within the spiral, the base-leg system and the seat back section.

Launch Gallery