The fourth chair [fig.8] explores the definition of 'plank' or 'board' in relation to the Sligo pattern. The boards need not be straight but can be curved. The curved 'planks' in this chair are made from laminating (gluing) European ash veneers around formers. Ash was chosen because of its exceptional bending properties. Each plank is made of eight layers of 1.4mm constructional veneer (conventional or ordinary veneer is 0.6mm thick). Because each plank is doing the job of at least two planks in the pattern, for example, each back leg also forms part of the seat, there are fewer parts: there are 5 (+ 2 front legs) total, as compared with 11 (+ 2 front legs) in Sligo 1. The joinery is loose tenons and dowels throughout, except for the front legs, which are through tenoned and wedged. The construction method means that this chair is suitable for small-batch production, and indeed I went on to make more.

***

This series of chairs formed part of Laura Mays' thesis project for a Masters Degree in Industrial Design in Dublin, Ireland. The thesis grappled with the meaning and value of craft as exemplified by two series of chairs. The identity of craft itself is contested and nebulous, but insofar as it occupies a territory distinct from art, design, and manufacture, it draws on the past to a greater degree. Its identity rests on logic of construction derived through practice, the use of familiar patterns or archetypes, and the scale of production facilitating connection between maker and user, as in a pre- or less-globalized market. Craft tends to be locally based and therefore brings maker and user closer together, both geographically and/or culturally. One of craft's 'jobs' is to be a constant reminder of process and connections to a world that often wants to obscure them.