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woodezine - Volume
II - Issue XI - November 2004
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Furniture Builder of
the Month
Sponsored by Village Originals
Michael Doerr
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Chairs, for many of us, are the most difficult projects to build. Michael Doerr delights in their design and construction. Michael runs a one-man shop in Door County - the thumb on the boxing glove that is the map of Wisconsin. There, surrounded by the waters of the Great Lakes (and lots of tourists), he designs and builds beautiful handmade wooden furniture. Using mostly Northern hardwoods, he constructs cabinets and tables and a myriad other pieces, but he is best known for his unique chairs. Like the work of Sam Maloof, anybody familiar with art furniture can spot a Doerr chair a mile away. Michael carefully selects individual pieces of wood to enhance the design, then creates a work with the flow of an unbroken line that "creates a cohesive and unified quality to the overall outline". |
| Since 1989, Michael has developed a national and international clientele. During the 1999 Philadelphia Furniture Show, furniture historian Oscar Fitzgerald saw Michael Doerr's work and included it in the Parson School of Design/Smithsonian Institute lecture series on Contemporary American Crafts. In January of 2001, Woodshop News Magazine featured his furniture in their cover story. The winter of 2000-2001 also saw the publication of a feature article in Door County Magazine entitled, "Making Furniture One Piece at a Time". |
Chairs...
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"Working on a theory of design integrity and craftsmanship," Michael says, "I have been inspired by my mentors - like master shipwright Ferdinand "Red" Nimphius, who once told me that it's not what you accomplish in a day, it is what you have learned." |
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Clean lines and dynamic design are an excellent way
to describe Michael Doerr's work. A true craftsman, Doerr chooses individual
pieces of wood that will seamlessly blend together once the chair is
constructed to produce a clean, one-dimensional look.
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Other Work...
| Michael Doerr doesn't just build chairs. His casework has a slightly Krenov feel to it, although the lines - despite their contemporary nature - are more traditional. The piece at right evokes a memory of Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie style, which may have a subtle connection with the fact that Wright's Taliesen workshops are only a short drive from Door County. Perhaps the horizontal nature of the plains is a shared inspiration... |
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An extension of his chairmaking, Michael's one and two-person stools are a classic study in elegant simplicity. |
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The walnut dining set at right includes six of Michael's signature chairs and a harvest table with breadboard ends that accommodate movement across the grain in the solid hardwood top. A lot of his stock comes from Wisconsin's expansive hardwood forests where species like walnut, cherry and oak grow at a sedate pace through hard winters, humid summers and abundant precipitation. |
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Teacher...
| In addition to his furniture building, Michael teaches chair design theory and provides live instructional workshops at various locations around the US. In 2001 he became a faculty member at Peninsula Art School in Door County, Wisconsin. |
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In the image at right, Michael demonstrates construction techniques to make his original design, the "Number One Chair", using hand tools in combination with stationary tools. In this class, he works with students teaching a system of chair construction he has developed using Sam Maloof's joint integration. Each student starts with a set of wooden blocks prepared by Michael in his shop. He demonstrates a system of construction and leg seat joinery based on the use of a table saw, band saw, router and simple hand tools. Michael seeks to impart practical knowledge to the student by using hand tools. |
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After this five day class, students leave with their chair, and the experiential knowledge which enables them to create chairs at home. During one and two-day workshops Michael assembles a chair in block form and discusses how these blocks, once assembled, can be transformed into a comfortable chair. Key considerations are seat to back relationship, comfort, design elements when creating your own chair, selection of appropriate woods, and grain considerations. Finished chairs are on display for hands-on viewing. Michael equips students with the knowledge and experience needed to design their own chairs. Week long, hands-on classes are provided in his own shop, the Doerr Woodworking Studio in Sturgeon Bay. |
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Students follow Michael in constructing their own chair from a set of blocks prepared in advance for them (see photo above). Upon completion, they leave the class with the chair they have constructed. The week-long course is limited to one or two student participants, and is available by appointment. Tuition is $1,250. For more details, visit Michael online (see link below). |
Living in God's Country...
 Image courtesy of Richard Feich. |
Door County has long been a cultural center for artists working in all types of media. The Sturgeon Bay area is home to the Peninsula Artisans, many great craftspeople who work with a variety of materials, including metal, wood, fiber, clay, glass, paper and more. Many participating artists allow visitors to watch them practice their craft in their studios, offering a unique opportunity to see specialized, one-of-a-kind artwork being created Michael Doerr (Editor's note: the beautiful shot of Door County's shoreline at left is published here courtesy of photographer Richard Feich. To visit Richard online and see many more images, click on the photo. |
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Upon completion, each of Michael Doerr's pieces are signed and numbered with the year of creation, and then hand-rubbed with an oil finish which is applied over the entire surface. To see more of Michaels' work or learn how you can take a class in his workshop, visit him online (http://www.michaeldoerr.com). To contact this artist, send him an e-mail (michael@michaeldoerr.com), or call 920.743.5631 The images of Michael on this page were taken by Jeff Davis (920.746.4137) and the photos of his work were shot by Matt Orthober (920.743.9667). Our thanks to you both. |
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All
text and images on this page are copyrighted and used with the artist's
permission.
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