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Handcarved Kansa Indian Art-Furniture Chair with Handhewn Texture, Leather Cushion, and Buffalo Hide Cover

Handcarved Kansa Indian Art-Furniture Chair with Handhewn Texture, Leather Cushion, and Buffalo Hide Cover

Description

Hey there, thanks for looking.
I'm a professionial (full-time) craft artisan, building mostly art-furniture and mixed media crafts. Folks often ask me what I build for my own house. Well, this chair is one of those projects, titled "Against the Wind."

After using this show-piece in gallery and art show venues, I have decided to retire it from the show circuit and to sell the chair. The price is firm. I don't know exactly what the shipping costs will be, as it will depend entirely on where it is shipped. I put a price in the shipping, so that you'd at least know that it won't be inexpensive. I've shipped furniture safely many times, and will work out those details with the buyer. If you have a specific address you'd like the chair to be delivered to, send me a note and I can get a delivery quote from the shipping company.

"Against The Wind"
This is an original art-chair (only 1) that I designed and built for my exhibition space at the Western Design Conference in Cody, WY in 2006.

This Chair is built well with through-mortise-and-tenon joinery, each plugged with walnut pegs. The seat is sewn leather and padded, custom made for me by www.allensupholstery.com in Wichita, Kansas.

This is a heavy chair, all solid wood, and features a curved lumbar support on the back, which makes it very comfortable to sit in.

The Inspiration for this Piece:
This chair is designed to be sat in, but I really built it as a piece of art-sculpture to tell the sad end of the Free-Kansa Indian tribe. They were removed from Kansas by the Federal Government to free up more land for settlement and cattle. In the wake of the flood of settlers into the Kansas Flint Hills, the Buffalo were killed, and the Kansa Indians were first forced onto a Reservation north of my house a few miles. When the reservation land was deemed to be too valuable to let the Tribe live there, they were forced to walk south into Oklahoma, where they eventually became extinct as a tribe. And the history of the free-prairie buffalo is a very similar story. So, I tied the two together in this art-piece.

The Prairie winds in Kansas normally blow out of the South. The State name of "Kansas" means "People of the Southwind."

As the Kansa were walked to Oklahoma, they would have been forced from their native lands, and pushed "Against the Wind", thus the name of this art-sculpture piece.

The Buffalo Hide Seat Cover is removable, simply by just untying the sinew strings that hold it in place.

The American Bison/Buffalo used for the seat cover was a Chase County Kansas Flint Hills Ranch raised exotic animal, which was butchered for it's meat. I was given the fresh hide, which I scraped and salted and cleaned and then had hide tanned for me to be used as upholstery leather. The Hair is very soft, and does not fall out, not a typical quality of hair-hide buffalo. I picked out the best section of the hide for this seat, where smooth long hair was present.

Since I'm only limited to 5 photos here on etsy, if you would like to see more about this chair, please visit this website location:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/138

You can also send me a note requesting more photos by email, or I can answer your questions.

I want this art-chair to go to a good home that will appreciate both it's creation and it's Story.

PURCHASING:
If you feel you'd like to adopt it, please hit the "Buy Now" button. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAVE THE 4% BY ELIMINATING THE PAYPAL fees, contact me for payment with a personal check, cashier's check, or money order before you purchase, and I'll change the pricing for you, and work out the details. The chair will be held until your check clears, I've been given hot checks before, so I have to be cautious.

SHIPPING COSTS:
Crating, Packing, Shipping, and Insuring custom furniture is very expensive. If you would like to pick this piece up at my shop, send me a note, and I'll remove the shipping fees before you hit the "Buy Now" button. If you live close to Kansas, I might even meet you half way, or deliver it, just send me a note and we'll work out something together.

Thanks for looking,
Mark DeCou
www.decoustudio.com
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio
www.decoustudio.etsy.com

Added on Oct 05, 2009