Seven trades, ten to twelve months
A chair is not assembled. It is cut from one trunk, and it passes through the hands of seven men before it is finished — each of them a separate trade.
What the work actually consists of
A chair takes between ten and twelve months of work. In that time it passes through the hands of seven different men, and each of them does one thing only. One prepares the material. One gives the chair its form. One carves into the mass. One takes the detail. Then the finishing: first the knife, over every surface the chisel left, and after that glass paper, by hand.
The craft passes from master to apprentice inside the workshop, by the hand and by the eye. It is not taught in a school.
Working times
| Piece | Time at the bench |
|---|---|
| Throne chair or armchair | Ten to twelve months |
| Tall ebony sculpture | Five to six months |
| Zanzibar dining table | Three months, worked in parts |
| Men on one chair | Seven, each a separate trade |
Why a cut cannot be taken back
Most pieces are cut from a single block, and a cut that goes too deep at any stage ends the piece — and the year of work inside it. The Zanzibar pieces are the exception: those are built from carved panels, a separate inheritance and a different hand.
This is also why a piece cannot be ordered in another size. Each one is as large as its tree allowed. Trees of that diameter are no longer standing near the workshop; finding one usable trunk means travelling hundreds of kilometres, looking at many, buying one, and carrying it back whole. Asking for the same piece ten centimetres wider is not a question of price. The tree does not exist.
Why the wood holds a cut
The climate decides it. Long dry seasons stop the tree's growth and the rains start it again, year after year, so the rings close up tight instead of running loose and wide. That is density, and density is the difference between wood that holds a cut and wood that crumbles at the edge of one.
Ebony is the extreme of it: so dense it does not float, and among the most expensive timbers in the world — elsewhere sold by the kilogram, in offcuts, for instrument parts and inlay. A chair in solid ebony is a quantity of that wood rarely seen in one object.
Pieces this applies to
- Makonde Royal Throne Chair · ten to twelve months
- Maasai Armchair · ten to twelve months
- Tall Makonde Ebony Sculpture · five to six months
- Zanzibar Mongongo Wood Dining Table · three months, carved panels
- Legacy Ebony Boat Sculpture