Artsmith Craftworks

When you can combine the best of all worlds, why wouldn’t you? This piece is one that I finished last week that incorporates several of my interests/passions.

First, I’ve always wanted to design and build a video chair that was not only cool looking, but was good for your back. Many of you know that while I’m a lifetime artist, I’m also a chiropractor, so making a chair that was ergonomic was a pleasure and even a duty.

Second, I love the entire Steampunk genre and I tried to give the chair a bit of a steam look without overdoing it. The brown covering has a leather or suede look (even though it’s paper) and the gears just complete the feel.

"Steampunk Video Chair"

Lastly…near and dear to my heart is the fact that the entire piece is constructed of recycled/upcycled/repurposed materials. The shape and structure of the chair is made of cut out and laminated corrugated cardboard, which is cross-supported with six thick-walled cardboard mailing tubes that I’d been saving. All glued together, this piece is very strong and pretty light weight! I then used newspaper papier mache to cover the laminated corrugated, then went over that with a mache of torn brown scrap craft paper. The tubes are covered with old paper company swatchbook samples in red and there’s a small, flat chunk of cement in the seat for weight balance, (I poured this as a mosaic stepping stone base, but never used it). The padding on the chair is factory scrap foam punch-outs in a cylindrical shape that I cut in half lengthwise and covered in scrap drapery fabric. The bottom edges are covered with scrap, rubbery foam to make the chair non-skid and to protect it.

The chair is very comfortable, supports your neck and low back properly and rocks a bit. GREAT for watching movies!

The piece is for sale to the right buyer. Let me know what you think of it!