Narra and leather with satinwood, guatambu and kwila 

43”h x 26”w x 50”d  2004

The Ginkgo Rocking Chair is a sculptural piece carefully designed and made to solve the three goals faced by the chair maker; comfort, strength and beauty.  I choose to use traditional mortise & tenon joinery in all my chairs to insure strength and durability for generations to come.  The individual backrest flex independently of each other and float within deep mortises in the chair’s crest or top rail, allowing them to adjust individually to the sitter.

A double-bevel marquetry design made of hand-sawn veneers, sweeps across the backrest.  Marquetry is a technique where different natural colors of wood veneers are carefully cut to fit precisely together, creating a design in a single, smooth surface.

Narra, an ecologically harvested wood from Papua New Guinea, was carefully selected for its consistent color, calm grain patterns, and tight ‘beeswing’ figure.  Satinwood (Sri Lanka) guatambu (Central America) and kwila (Papua New Guinea), work together creating the falling ginkgo leaf design.

The rockers and backrest are tapered, bent laminations.  The leather upholstery work is performed by myself.  The finish is hand-rubbed oil.