THE FUNKY CHAIR

I had "writers bloc" for a while and couldn't think of a single thing to blog about. But this morning, as I was encouraging a cast teammate and offering her suggestions on how to more economically produce her product............a brainstorm !!!

I was taking pictures to show her what could be done with a simple wooden ball cabinet pull, when voila !!! my subject matter was right before me.

Enter: THE FUNKY CHAIR.


This particular chair had five exact replicas. It was one in a set of six that paraded around our kitchen table when I was a child. Handmade by my Daddy (I guess I come by this inclination naturally!!). My dad was a school teacher. Wonderful profession for a dad. He was home early, had weekends off, all school holidays off and the whole summer. He had plenty of time to doodle on his hobbies. He made us lots of wonderful things. I'll share more about them in future blog posts.

My dad died when I was just 14 years old. I am the oldest of four. All my siblings were each a year younger than the the preceeding one. Just six months after this, we moved to another state, lugging all our earthly belongings - the chairs included. Moved again a year later - but the chairs came too.

My mom stayed in this final house until she died. Then followed the bittersweet distribution of our family heirlooms. With the blessing of my siblings, I inherited two of the chairs.

Of course, when were were actually using the chairs every day in our childhood home, they did not look funky. The looked like normal, everyday chairs. My dad was fond of decals and he plastered a "kitcheny looking" decal on the back splat of each chair.

When the chairs came to live at my house, I wanted them to have a place of honor. I wanted people to admire them. I set about to repurpose them.

At this point in time, there was a local arts movement - spear-headed by a local potter named Victoria MacKenzie-Childs. Her pottery was so whimsical, funky, and colorful, that she soon became a household name. Her wares were carried in posh giftshops all over the country. Even Neiman-Marcus carried MacKenzie-Childs work. There were TV shows featuring her and her home. Her production plant overlooking Cayuga Lake in upstate NY became a destination. Tours were offered, her work was for sale, you could get seconds, have lunch there, browse through the gardens......

I decided to embellish my chairs ala MacKenzie-Childs. What you see is a homage both to her style and to my Daddy.


If you have inherited a precious heirloom, give it a place of honor, make it the star of the show............