EGG CHAIR
CONSERVATION / RESTORATION
This
is the story of putting Humpty-Dumpty back together again!
The
Egg Chair, designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958, was not a typical job! Our client
found it secondhand in poor condition, having been reupholstered by someone who
did not know what they were doing! However, they knew they had a special
chair that needed work. They brought it to us for restoration. We believe
that it is an early piece dating back to the time they were first introduced,
because of the deteriorating latex we found on examination, and the fact that it
had at least one reupholstery job with fabric dating from the 1970’s.
The
previously upholsterer had not taken the time to do the job right. Instead of
stretching an appropriate fabric painstakingly around the body, the upholsterer
had simply drilled holes through the frame, and used buttons to pull the
inappropriate rubber-backed nylon oatmeal fabric to the concave form. She or he
also added seams between the inside arms and inside back in an attempt to create
contour in the fabric for the interior back. Egg Chairs, when appropriately
upholstered in fabric, have no interior seams.
Having
never previously upholstered an Egg Chair, and not having the original job to
explore as he stripped it, presented a challenge. We attempted to contact
the manufacturer to ask about the best manner to restore the piece, and were
told the proprietary rights to the
information would not be released to us. Our clients had the option of
sending the piece to Europe to have it restored, or take a chance on us. We were on our own! Mitchell had small photographs from the
Internet, a trip to Knoll International’s Los Angeles Showroom to observe the
piece, a conversation with two upholsterers in NYC that had previously restored
Egg Chairs, and his memory to serve him.
Mitchell
researched appropriate fabrics from ICF and Knoll International; our client
chose a worsted wool micro knit, “Wool Crepe,” from Unikavaev, in the color “Citrouville”,
through ICF. Knoll assured us that this fabric would be able to achieve the
proper stretch in warp, weft, and bias.
Mitchell
mapped the project in advance, step-by-step, as he does with all projects, but
in this particular project it was critical, and mapping it saved him many
problems in advance that might have had to be redone, ruining fabric and losing
time.
THE
PROCESS
We
began by stripping the back of the chair, down to the glue, left! The old glue
edges were sanded off, taking care to fill any anomalies (dings) in the frame.
The chair frame appeared to use the same technology as the surfboard industry;
Styrofoam® and fiberglass. The inside of the chair was next to be stripped,
right. It was filled with old latex that turned to powder. Mitchell performed
the same process, sanding old glue and filling the chair frame anomalies.
The
first layer of 3/4" inch Ultra-cell® foam was applied to the inside back and arms,
left, using a clear foam cement lightly sprayed with an industrial sprayer, to
both surfaces, as he carefully stretched and smoothed the foam onto the contours
of the inside frame. This had to be done in a timely manner; once started, no
interruptions! Detail was paid to the edges by modifying an electric foam saw,
and the creation of a jig to guide the blade around the parameter of the foam
and the egg frame.
In
this way, a uniform edge was created. Then another layer of clear foam adhesive
was applied to the extremities, and the edges of the foam were knifed down to
the outside back of the frame edge, creating a uniform line. A second layer of
1/2" super-soft foam, left, with a gauze backing was glued and stretched over
the top of the first layer in similar fashion to the first, but the top layer
was wrapped and temporarily stapled to the underside of the frame.
The
outside back arms and bottom went through a similar process (not shown), but
with only a single layer of 1/2" thick Ultra-cell® foam. He also left a loose
edge of about 2” all around the edge, unglued, in order to have access to the
frame later when applying the fabric.
No
photos were taken of the actual gluing process because we did not have two
respirators on hand!
STRETCHING FABRIC
The
fabric for the inside back and inside arms was cut in one piece, with the seat
deck area missing, to be sewn in separately. This was laid into the cavity and
temporarily pinned, above. The fabric was then stretched from the center of the
inside back out to the extremities and pinned. This process was repeated three
times until the proper tension and grain disposition was achieved. Pins were
then removed from the extremity of the cloth in the center of the inside back,
opening a pocket between the fabric back and the foam surface, in which glue
could be sprayed onto both surfaces. This was allowed to cure for a few
minutes, and then hand pressed onto the surface of the foam, then re-pinned
around the extremity of the edges.
It
was a tricky procedure, and if Mitchell over-sprayed the glue at any time, the
glue would penetrate the fabric. This would ruin the fabric, and he would have
had to start the entire process over again with new fabric. This process was
patiently followed in small steps, which comprised sections as large as an
adults hand splayed open, until the entire surface was glued into place.
The
cloth selvage at the bottom deck was glued and temporarily stapled; cloth around
the extremities was pulled over the outer edge, glued and temporarily stapled to
the outside edges of the outside back and outside arms of the frame.
The
seat deck, which is the area under the seat cushion (not shown,) was installed
in a similar process to the inside frame and arms. It had to conform to the
horseshoe pattern in the seat cavity, which water-falled over the front edge.
Fabric was tailored to conform to the horseshoe and the waterfall, leaving a 3/4
inch selvage all around. The seat deck fabric was turned under, pinned to the
horseshoe shape, then hand-stitched using #16 polyester upholstery thread with
stitch tolerances being no greater than 1/16th of an inch! The fabric
water-falling the seat front was glued along the edge, pulled under and
temporarily stapled to the outside bottom frame.
Now
the real fun began! The base of the chair was removed in order to stretch one
piece of fabric over the entire surface, which comprised the outside back, wing,
arm, and bottom. Mitchell’s initial hope was that the fabric would be able to
stretch without any seams and darts.
Mitchell
was unable to achieve this, having no idea whether this was due to the fabric or
some other step of which he was unaware. Mitchell chose to reupholster the
chair in the same manner that Knoll upholsters their leather Egg Chair. He
machine-stitched two darts, beginning at the bottom stanchion and proceeding
along a line that met the joining points of the hand-stitched seat deck and
inside arm. He loosely stretched and pinned the outside back into place. The
cast aluminum stand was polished and reinstalled.
Fabric
of this type, when stretched, will pull in eight directions: horizontally in two
directions, vertically in two directions, and diagonally in all four
directions. This makes it appear to grow exponentially with each stretching!
The
fabric was stretched again, and pinned snugly but with open selvage at the
edges, above. This stretching and re-pinning continued in this manner four
times, because each time Mitchell thought he had it adequately stretched, he
checked his work by running his hand across the back, and detected small buckles
or ridges each time! It had to be completely smooth, and Mitchell had zero
tolerance for anomalies!
A
note regarding the darts: The first time Mitchell re-stretched and re-pinned
the outside back fabric, the dart moved; he realized that the dart would move
each time he had to stretch and re-pin the fabric! He realized he could not use
the machine-stitched dart! This was the only mishap of the project, and
fortunately, it had not resulted in having to scrap the fabric and start
completely over! He cut the machine stitching carefully, and as he worked the
stretching and re-pinning of the back, he also had to also re-pin and trim the
darts. Eventually the two darts were hand stitched into place, left.
The
inside back fabric, which had been temporarily stapled into place, was now
released and glued to the outside back frame. This, too, was a process of
releasing small areas no bigger than a hand span from the pins (back) or staples
(front), and stretching again, gluing, and drying!
The
outside back foam was then glued over the top of the inside back fabric (on the
back frame), up to about a finger’s width from the edge. This small space was
to allow the outside back fabric to eventually wrap up and over the outside back
foam, concealing the selvage edge complete and creating a smooth surface!
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