The Peasant Who Might Starve

Or eat Wiener Water Soup.

Just another day of quiet, productive and completely tidy work.

March 2023 is my 20^th anniversary of building stick chairs. I have now made enough chairs that my hands know more about the chairs than my brain does. Basically, my hands know what to do, and my brain tries to get out of the way.

If I had to, I could make an OK living just making chairs (but I would have to switch to Milwaukee’s Best beer. And, really, is that living?).

During the last couple months, however, I have radically downshifted my work back into the world of casework for “The American Peasant.” And I can honestly say that if I had to rely on casework to survive, I would be lucky to afford Wiener Water Soup.

I am so damn slow. It took me most of a day to get this single side frame together for a Romanian cupboard. Of course, most of that day was figuring out the best strategy to put its parts together.

The original cupboards were joined with tongue-and-groove joinery (plus tenons). The tongues were the natural result …