Folk Futures: Greenwood Chairmaking
Union Settee by Aspen Golann, 2025. Oak, ash, eastern white pine, milk paint, 37½" x 52" x 34". Photo by Kate Benson.
This workshop will explore greenwood chairmaking as both a practical craft and a tool for creative expression. Participants will begin with the fundamentals—splitting, shaving, steam-bending, and joinery—transforming raw logs into usable parts. After making a simple stool, each participant will design and build their own chair. Projects may be functional or experimental, sculptural, playful, or fantastical, reflecting the individual maker’s needs and ideas, encouraging a wide range of creative outcomes. Participants will leave with a handmade piece of furniture and the knowledge to continue green woodworking independently: a lifelong way of working with natural materials and human-centered design. Alongside building, we will consider ergonomics as well as the cultural and symbolic meanings of chairs—objects that shape how we sit, gather, and inhabit our spaces. Note that green woodworking is physically challenging. All levels welcome.
Aspen Golann (she/her) is a furniture maker, sculptor, and educator based in New England. She received a BFA from the North Bennet Street School and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design, with workshops at Penland, Anderson Ranch, and the Winterthur Museum. Her work has been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is held in the Loewe Foundation Collection in Madrid. Golann is a United States Artists Fellow