The Fiddle Back Rocking Chair

Among the chairs in the library is a fiddle back rocking chair.  (I am learning new furniture terms on this build, too.) 

My original plan was to ask a woman who has previously created some custom, laser-cut, half-scale kits for me to create a kit for a fiddle-back rocker.  [Carrie sent me a very interesting article on creating kits yourself and having them laser cut by a service, but I got the article after finishing the chair.  Keeping it in mind for the future.]  Anyway, flush with success from the desk chair, I decided to use my Silhouette Cameo and my sandwich method (two layers of chipboard and two layers of wood scrapbooking paper glued together, with the edges coated with stainable wood putty) for those elements that could not easily be cut from strip wood.  I made the fiddle back, curved arm supports and rockers using this method; the rest is simple strip wood of various widths and thicknesses.  Aside from that, I simply stained, sanded, glued and varnished (kind of boring), so I didn't take pictures of the process. Here is the finished chair.

I think it looks OK, and it actually rocks!  I had a little video of it rocking, but for some reason it will not upload.

Here it is, next to the desk.  I have put down a temporary rug (I will be cross-stitching a rug once I find a pattern I like) so that you can see the chair, because the dark furniture tends to disappear against the dark floor.

Speaking of rugs, I am still working on the rug that will go under the zebra skin.  It is being worked with one strand of DMC floss on 36-count Evenweave.  For some reason, I have really hated doing the outer border, so I keep finding excuses not to work on it.  That part is finally done though, so I just need to finish a bit of the inner border and fill in the middle, which I hope will go faster.  Below is my progress so far under the "zebra skin" I printed on velvet paper.  I will be trimming that out a bit with embroidery floss to give it a mane.

There will likely be no update next week, as I will be busy preparing for Thanksgiving this week and next, and won't have time to work on the library. ☹  There are still a few chairs left to build, but I plan to go back to finishing the lighting and woodwork, get a ceiling in place, and fill those bookshelves!!  I'll also be working on a few more smaller elements for the room. 

As always, thanks for stopping by, and for those of you in the U.S., best wishes for a very happy Thanksgiving!