Knot A Good Day..

Chair 003 Wm

 

How would we manage without YouTube?

Whatever it is you need to know someone, somewhere, will have made a video to cover it. So much brilliant information and so readily to hand. Yours for the mere click of a mouse. It’s easy to become overwhelmed. Take my springs. I’ve watched half a dozen different tutorials now and, as a result, almost as many methods of tying them down. Add into the equation that the stuff used for tying is called ‘laid cord’ and the whole process known as ‘lashing’.. well you can imagine that Google searches are becoming a tad fraught.

It took only five minutes to realise, in spite of video evidence to the contrary, that an upholsterer needs more than two hands. You may have noticed the springs are quite large. Perhaps starting from scratch I might have bought a smaller size. But the second chair of the pair stands testimony: into a flat seat they do indeed go. And then there are the knots. We spent much of the morning on diagrams, the newly conscripted Assistant Upholsterer and I, bits of string in hand. Like a couple of kids at Scout Camp. Hitch knots, slip knots, locking knots. Which knot goes where and what am I supposed to do with this left over end?

Mike was to hold down the springs while I tied the knots. Within the confines of a wooden frame that’s easier said than done. Tempers swiftly frayed. It’s important that the springs stay straight, even when compressed. Whilst I could admire the sinuous curves on ours, they’re not meant to perform yoga. Our second attempt was looking better and I thought we had cracked it. And possibly we had until the very last row..

As the final tack is hammered home..

The pressure contained in the tightly coiled wire becomes just too much..

The springs explode skyward, not one row but two..

And tacks start to fly through the air..  one rattling off a picture on the far wall.

.

We will have another go.

Sometime next week. Maybe.

When the longer tacks have arrived.