Designing Comfortable Dining Chairs

It's easy to work wood into objects straight and flat, and not too hard to add a gentle curve or two.  But the deep, flowing curves and contours that mirror the human body are difficult to produce in wood;  I guess that is why there are so few comfortable wooden chairs.  But human curves and contours, taken in negative and given form in a chair, please the eye by nature.
That is to say that finding a form to enfold and support a human in comfort and good posture puts one on the way to something beautiful — a form to refine as sculpture.

I don't think or work in terms of a fashion or period.  I don't know what style the dining chairs are.  Maybe this gives them versatility. These chairs are in use around many different tables and in many different interiors.

I believe a dining chair should:

• be beautiful, graceful, and sculptural
• hold a human upright, alert, and in good posture
• be comfortable for the duration of a long, long conversation after dinner
• be light enough for young and old to easily move in and out at the table
• be strong enough to withstand sitting, leaning, pulling, moving, standing on, and jerking three times a day, every day
• have contours and surfaces that reflect those of the human body — no round sticks, flat seats, or straight backs
• generate immediate attention when you sit  ("Wow, this is comfy!") and never again call attention to itself — except to remind you of your first reaction
• be easy to keep clean

After I had been building the rocking chair for a few years, a patron asked for dining chairs and I committed to designing one.  I made mock-ups and prototypes for people to try.  I thought I had a large part of the work done because I already had the curve for the back.  "I'll just use the curve from the rocker."  Wrong.  As you sit up straighter, the curve in your back changes.

Moreover, the design criterion for the interplay of muscle and mind is different when dining than when rocking.  In the rocker you are relaxed and can sleep if you wish.  In the dining chair, the desired result is a state of alertness, with no tension, and good posture, without effort.