Paimio Scroll Chair by Alvar Aalto.

Ok, here goes my first tutorial. Wish me luck! 

I am a huge fan of laminated, bent wood furniture and this piece is simple in form and elegance. It is named after the town in Finland for which Aalto designed a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1931 and was used in the patients lounge. The angle of the chair was designed to help the patients with their breathing. The frame was laminated birch made from one continuous length, which was bent into a closed curve with solid birch cross rails.

Materials needed:

Cardstock
Sharp cutting instrument or Cricut / Scan ‘N’ Cut
Mat board or foam board
Wood glue
Paint
Gloss & satin varnish
Rubber bands
1 Wooden stir stick

Step 1 – Making the forms 

The first step is to make forms to laminate your card stock around in order to get the delicate curves required. Below are the patterns that you will need. I have included an inch square that you will need to use to scale your pattern correctly.

There are several ways to make the forms required. The method that I used is time consuming, but I wanted a form that was solid and could be used many times without being damaged or falling apart. I will talk about another, quicker method later.

Let’s do the seat form first. You will need to trace the pattern on to mat board 30 times and carefully cut out. This is the tedious part and I cheated and used my Scan N Cut to do it.
Glue the pieces, stacked one on top of the other carefully aligning each piece. Your form should look like this and measure about 45 mm across.

Another and quicker way to make the form is to use foam board. Glue several pieces of foam board together until you have a thickness of 45 mm. Glue the pattern to one face of the foam board and using a band saw or scroll saw, cut out your form. You could also cut them out by hand but I had trouble keeping the form accurate when I tried. 

The next form we need to make is the frame form. You can make two of these or make one and use it twice. I chose to make two forms because I am impatient. 

Once again trace the pattern on to mat board but only eight times, four for each side. Carefully cut them out and glue them together in two lots of four.

You should now have three forms or two if you are using the same form twice.


Step 2 – Making the seat 

Measure and cut four pieces of card stock 42 mm x 160 mm. The seat will only measure about 132 mm length but we will not cut this down until the seat has dried in the form. The reason for this is as we laminate around the curves, the outer layers will require more card stock length. 

The next bit can be tricky. Spread the glue on the back of the three card stock pieces. Mould the unglued piece to form. Note - we are not glueing to the form. Add one of the glued pieces of card stock to the piece on the form, making sure the edges are level and moulding it to the curves. Leave excess length at each end. Add the next piece, pressing against the form as you go. Finally add the last piece, again making sure the edges are level. 

 
Secure in place with three rubber bands and leave overnight to dry. 

When dry remove the seat from the mould. You will need to trim the seat to size at the points shown on the diagram below. 

When trimmed it should look like this.

Cut 2 lengths of 50 mm from your stir stick and attach them to each end as shown in the picture. leave an overhang at each end of 4 mm. This is where you will attach the seat to your frame.

Your seat is now complete and ready to be painted. I used acrylic paint and painted both front, back and edges. Another alternative would be to use coloured card stock and avoid the need to paint.


Step 3 – Making the frame 

Cut 6 or 8 lengths of card stock 5 mm x 280 mm (I used the length of a sheet). Mould the first piece around your form and when it meets itself start to add glue and stick it to itself. Continue to the end of the strip, moulding it as you go and making sure the edges line up. Add another length where the first ends and continue until you have gone around the form 4 times. Trim off any excess card stock.  I always start and finish at the bottom for neatness.  Secure with a rubber band or two.  Leave to dry overnight. 

Remove the frame from the moulds. They should look like this.

Cut four strips of card stock 5mm x 42mm and glue together. This is your cross rail. 

Take your two frame side pieces, hold them both together and make a small mark at the back, halfway up on both pieces. 

Glue the cross rail to the two frame pieces with the mark central. 

When dry lightly sand with fine sandpaper and paint to look like a light, birch wood.   Painting the wood effect is not my forté so I will be trying different techniques on future models.  For this model I used ivory acrylic paint with a tiny dot of cinnamon brown mixed in.


Step 4 - Assemble the frame and seat.

To assemble, you need to glue the seat tabs to the frame as shown below.

Secure with clothes pegs while the glue is drying.

I finished the chair with a gloss varnish for the seat and a satin varnish for the frame.

Happy Modelling.