Sit On It
Each year, the Young Women’s Resource Center sponsors an auction called “Sit On It” to raise money for their organization and to provide quality programming and guidance to the young women of central Iowa. Artists, crafters and woodworkers from all around Des Moines create works of art in the form of chairs, stools, rockers, benches, porch swings, tables, desks, and mirrors for the auction, which is held on Friday, April 13th.
A couple of years ago I built a stool that sold at the auction for over $400. The Knock-apart stool was actually a copy of a design by artist Mike Lyon of Kansas City. The seat is just a chunk of Walnut that I had sitting around. I intended to sculpt the seat to look like a little less rustic, but ran out of time!
The interesting thing about this design is that it’s made with interlocking joinery, using no glue or fasteners, that allows it to be “knocked” apart for storage.
If you’re interested in getting involved with this project, simply send a postcard with your name, address, phone numbers, email, and your business or company’s name to this address:
Young Women’s Resource Center
705 East 2nd Street
Des Moines, IA 50309-1833
They’ll mail you an application form.
If you don’t live in the Des Moines area, look for similar projects in your area. Woodworking clubs can be a good source of information about these types of charity events.
Mike Lyon said,
Well, this came out rather well — but I think my original 2002 design was a bit more ‘rational’ — you can find the original page which inspired the stool in this article at Lennie Berkowitz Stool and you can see my more recent work, mostly very large scale wood block prints and pen and ink drawings but also a few tables and mechanical devices on my BLOG
Best, Mike Lyon
(posted on January 16th, 2007 at 3:45 pm)