A Newly Turned Miniature Stretcher

A quarter scale stretcher for a miniature Windsor Chair turned on the lathe

The latest batch of miniature Windsor chairs are finally assembled and ready for final sanding and painting with traditional milk paint. Time to take a day or two and work on something else, or I was until my wife told me she needed picture frames made for an upcoming art show. Oh well!

Making miniature Windsors was something I thought about for a long time, but I had so many ideas, I had to say, “Well I’ll do this when someone asks me.” Then out of the blue one day in July 1999, I found a letter in the mail box. A letter, but not just any letter. This one was from the White House! I was cool. They probably wanted money, and thought I was a bigger business than I really was. But no! It was an invitation to make a Christmas tree ornament for the White House Christmas Tree. Reading the letter, the White House Social Office contacted the 200 craftsman/women who had been selected for the 1999 Early American Life Magazine’s Directory of Traditional Crafts. The dimensions requested were just right for a quarter scale version of my Sack-back Windsor Chair.

Since that first miniature I have made over a hundred miniature Windsors. So many I have really lost count. The latest batch of ten, made for a private school in New York, are assembled, but await final sanding and painting The miniatures will be awarded to prominent donors sometime this Spring.

Thanks for stopping by–STB