Joel Staples

Windsor Chair

This is a Continuous Arm Windsor that I built last spring. The chair is pine, ash and maple, with a green over yellow milk paint finish. John Fowler is a windsor chair maker in Nova Scotia, and he taught me how to make this chair, from felling the tree, to the finished product. We have been using this chair for nearly a year, and the yellow paint is being revealed nicely.

This summer I'll be working on building contemporary chairs inspired by this one, out of the trees available in the Rocky Mountains, where I now live.

Pine Blanket Chest

Here is a blanket chest built from Ontario White Pine. The wide boards used to build it were reclaimed from the ceiling in an old cottage. I built the chest using hand tools only, and its surfaces have subtle sculpted qualities.

The chest features a till on the inside, a strong panel in the lid to support a person sitting, and half blind dovetails for a clean look.

39" wide, 22" tall and 17.5" deep.

Shop and a Small Pine Cabinet

Here is a photo from the space I'm working in right now. It's in a studio at Artscape Gibraltar Point, on Toronto Island. I only brought hand tools to the Island so everything that I've been doing the past couple of months is human powered. The slabs of white pine against the wall will become a blanket chest.

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Here's an Apothecary Cabinet that I made for Susan. It's all white pine, I found some good quarter sawn 1"x6". The finish is super blond shellac, and some paste wax.