Vernacular Furniture Chris Williams has always had a passion for chairs. Based on the rural west coast of Wales, he has spent more than 30 years making Welsh stick chairs, which he crafts using timber foraged directly from the hedgerows. “When I harvest the wood, I do it in such a way that you’d never know I’d been there,” Chris says. “And I like to document exactly where the materials come from, so I can pass that information on to whoever buys the chair.” Growing up in a small community, Chris’s life was already interwoven with craft and the countryside, but it was an apprenticeship with a local authority that set him on the path he still follows. “I was taught how to make box sash windows, and I also got to work on old farms, making gates, repairing barn doors, that kind of thing,” he reflects. “So very early on I fell in love with carpentry, but there was also a real connection to the countryside.” Read more about Chris's process on the #TOASTmagazine via the link in bio. Chris Williams (@welshchairmaker) Words by Claudia Baillie (@claudiabaillie) Photographs by Leia Morrison (@leiamiamorrison).