The Brodgar Chair

This is the Brodgar chair - an inspired collaboration between furniture designer Gareth Neal and Orkney chair specialist Kevin Gauld.

The project was commissioned by the New Craftsmen and is a new interpretation within a much loved vernacular tradition.

The traditional Orkney chair was made using readily available resources. Timber was scarce on the almost treeless Scottish island, so the wood in the piece (usually either driftwood or timber from shipwrecks) was limited to the frame and seat whilst the back of the chair was woven in oat straw.

The Orkney chair is a wonderfully poetic illustration of the principle of making use of what comes to hand - deeply rooting the work in a very specific geographical and vernacular tradition.

I first learned about Orkney chairs on a glorious teenage holiday to the Islands with a school friend. Then a few years ago I came across it again thanks to furniture designer Simon Pengelly whose Scapa chair is a very different but equally wonderful re-imagining of this iconic tradition.

The Brodgar chair takes its name from the Brodgar stones - a Neolithic stone circle on the largest of Orkney’s islands. The sweeping curve in the back of the Brodgar chair echoes the curve of the Brodgar ring.

In the image above you see the standing stones with the landscape of Orkney laid out beyond.

A native Orcadian, Kevin Gauld comes from a family of furniture-makers and boat-builders. He has well-honed cabinet-making skills and usually builds the chair frames as well as making the straw backs.

Kevin is closely involved in each stage of the process, and grows his own oat straw - about a quarter of an acre of white oats yields what he needs for a year’s production of chairs.

In the beautiful image above - taken by photographer Lyndsay Laird - he is broadcasting seed with a ‘fiddle’, and here below he is harvesting the straw.

Once cut, the straw is left in the fields for a few weeks to dry before it is gathered up and stored up in the roof-void of Kevin’s workshop (see image below right). Here, aided by the the warmth of the wood-burning stove, the drying process of the straw is completed.

When the straw is ready to use, it is gathered into small bundles that are built up in stitched layers to form the chair back (see image above left). Kevin uses a sisal to stitch the bundles one on top of another. Once the chair-back is completed, any little whiskers of oat straw are singed off with a blow-torch, leaving a wonderfully textured golden curve of straw.

The beautifully elegant timber frame of the Brodgar chair is designed by London-based furniture designer Gareth Neal. It is made in European oak, and the softly moulded seat form references the adzed techniques used in traditional vernacular Windsor chairs. The joint details are particularly lovely and give the piece a timeless honesty.

The frames for the Brodgar chair are made at a small Windsor chair factory in Warwickshire, and then shipped to the Island where Kevin adds the straw chair-back.

For me, the Brodgar chair is a perfect example of a truely collaborative project in which all the elements, materials, skills and traditions come together perfectly to create a unique and iconic piece.

The charming portrait above is by Scottish artist Lindsey Gallacher and shows Kevin in his workshop with his little dog Ruby curled up at his feet.

For more information about the Brodgar chair please see the following:

The New Craftsmen
Kevin Gauld - The Orkney Furniture Maker
Gareth Neal

Photos: Linda Laird & Elliott Denny

To read the journal post on Simon Pengelly’s Scarpa chair please use the link here.