Solid hardwood, traditional joinery and contemporary machinery update the fine Windsor Chair. The front legs pass through the seat to become the king post and the back legs reach to the crest. With triangulation this strong design realigns the forces of compression and tension to maximum visual and physical effect. Milk paint or clear oil finish maintain the sustainable tradition of Windsor Chairs.
Stoel Burrowes is a fine woodworker, artist and university lecturer. He is greatly admired by his students and colleagues. Stoel's furniture designs craft the poetic language of material, form and function. His art work plays in the narrow area between life and death. His background in woodwork and furniture design has been the foundation of creative scholarship, and he has had work exhibited in several national and international venues, including the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia and the National Conference of The Furniture Society in Durham, the A’ Design Awards and Competition in Italy, the Interior Design Educators' Council in High Point and Georgia, and the Center for Visual Artists in Greensboro. Stoel's creative scholarship has played a major role in his teaching and mentoring of students. He has made several conference presentations that explore the relationship of making and learning as demonstrated in his work.
“A” Back Windsor Chair Description 25 years of experience and research in woodcraft and furniture design have led the designer to this chair design. Designed as a Dining Chair, the ‘up-right’ ergonomics is nearly puritanical. However, the space created in and behind can justify the wide stance. The technology and economy of the Windsor Chairs and the Shaker Chairs inform this design most profoundly. A care and respect for craft and materials, along with the integration of seat to structure, reflect both historically and futuristically. Windsor chairs are often named by their ‘back’ style (‘Fan Back’, ‘Continuous Arm’, ‘Bird Cage’). Thus, this chair is named for the form created by the legs and spindles, especially as seen from the back. The production of this chair is simple because of its basis in Windsor technology. The chair has only 15 wooden parts with only 6 kinds of parts. This ‘A’ Back Windsor chair’s solid Poplar seat rests on stepped out turnings of the otherwise tapered White Oak leg/posts. The modernity of the chair design contrasts with the traditional economy and craft of the Windsor Chair. Stoel Burrowes Bio/Statement I have built and designed fine furniture. Mostly, domestic hardwoods but exotic woods, metals, glass, stone and a wide variety of hardware have been incorporated into my work. Modern and contemporary must include life. So, I play in that zone of creative space between simplicity and ambiguity where archetype and generation reside. For the past ten years I have, also, been teaching. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interior Architecture at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I infuse my teaching and mentoring with the research and scholarship of my practice.