Chairmaker Jim Steele, works with the grain

Jim Steele makes just twelve Windsor chairs each year. This traditional design features woods chosen for their different qualities – ash, elm and hard-to-source yew. Filmed in great detail over a week, the craftsman builds a bespoke seat that looks simple – but isn’t. Jim must work with the qualities of the material, cajoling it into a steam-bent three-dimensional shape that supports the sitter in places they’d forgotten they had. There are but two screws in the finished chair.