Field notes / Furniture / Feature 03
Three feet on the floor.
A low working stool tells you where the maker expected the ground to move.
Outside the workshop the floor gives way to packed earth. It is here that the low stool makes most sense. All three legs find the ground at once. The seat does not need a flat patch of concrete before it can do its job.
The legs splay just enough to widen its stance. Each passes through the seat, where a pale wedge opens the tenon across the grain. Seen from above, those small marks tell you more about the construction than a view of the finished stool from the side.
A line of wear runs through the middle of the seat. The edges remain comparatively sharp. Someone always sat in the same place, then lifted the stool with the same hand. It is hard to imagine a more economical signature.