Using traditional tools and techniques, Elia Bizzarri rives, hews, shaves, and turns elegant Windsor chairs in his workshop in central North Carolina. Known for the quality and elegance of his turning technique, his chairs reflect an integral understanding of the intrinsic qualities of maple, poplar, hickory, and oak. The above is borrowed from Elia Bizzarri's own website. When he was 17, Elia started a five year apprenticeship with master chairmaker Curtis Buchanan. Since 2002,he has built Windsor chairs and taught chairmaking full-time. He claims to have never had a ‘real job.’ Mr. Bizzarri will be discussing his work and wood technology with topics including but not limited to wood structure, how it rots, what woods attract bugs and how to deal with them, how bacteria effects wood drying and cracking, what spalting is, how rays effect our work, how growing conditions effect different species, how to determine grain direction, etc.

Host: Mark Firley