Trapper Creek artist shares bent-willow chair skills with others

Plenty of people appreciate the look and feel of handmade rustic furniture, and the work that goes into it -- the fashioning of little birch saplings and chunks of wood into a one-of-a-kind chair or table or planter.

Some people appreciate it so much they are willing to pay some serious money for the furniture at local craft markets or shops. Others learn how to make the furniture themselves instead.

Trapper Creek artist Debbie Filter has been making rustic furniture for about five years, after getting her start by taking a class much like the one she is now teaching. Filter sells her unique bent-willow pieces through three local shops and at holiday fairs, where the quality and design of her work is becoming more recognized, and quite popular.

Last year, Filter decided to offer a bent-willow chair class to teach others how to make the furniture she has now mastered. She offered two classes last year, each with five students. They were such a success she decided to increase her class sizes to no more than 10 students and offer the classes again this year.

On July 17, seven women from Wasilla, Palmer, and Anchorage traveled to Filter's Petersville Road home and took her first class of the summer. For $65 and a day of hard work, the women -- some who were friends and a few who came alone -- were rewarded with their very own bent-willow chair.

Filter's class, which begins at 9 a.m., gives no set finish time. She said she plans this to allow those attending to feel less pressure about when they must finish their chair. It's really important to Filter that each person finish their chair, even if it takes some of them a little longer to accomplish the feat.

"It's pretty much a hands-on class," Filter said about her style of teaching. "I don't like to feed them too much information all at once -- it can overwhelm you -- so I just teach as we go.

"I think everyone should have a finished piece to take home," she said.

Once the group gets set up and everyone has found an area to work in, Filter said they head off into the nearby woods and begin selecting parts to build with.

Filter provides the nails and the wood, but anyone who takes her class is asked to bring their own tools, which include a hammer, tape measure, bow saw, rasp, small nippers and large clippers, and their own lunch.

"I also tell them they can bring their own pieces of wood, and I can show them how they might work well in a certain place," Filter said. Then she laughed and added, "Of course, they don't usually know what would make a good piece until after they have taken the class. I like to tell them that after this class, they will look at trees in a whole new way, and appreciate them a lot more."

On the afternoon of the class, Lynn Prahl of Palmer was working diligently to complete her chair.

"I didn't know where to start at all," Prahl said. "And I've made some mistakes. It's a good thing Debbie had backup material available, which kept us from having to return to the woods every time we made a mistake."

"This is really fun, It's a way to test your creative juices. You like to think you are being the artist, but the branches make their own path, taking on a life of their own," Prahl added.

"This has been a wonderful day," said Kym Wolcott of her experience. Wolcott was spending her birthday taking the class with two friends and neighbors at Nancy Lake, Jeanine St. John and Beth Gamel.

Across the yard, LaVancha Lankford of Wasilla was busy bending willow branches into arms for her chair, while Palmer friends Haley Forkner and Jackie Clark worked on their designs nearby.

"This has been just great," Lankford said. "My husband tried to trade weekends with me, he wanted to do something, but I said there was no way I was going to miss this class. I am so glad I got to do this."

Clark said Filter did a great job of encouraging her as she worked on her ideas.

"I kept asking her, 'How's this?, How's this?'," Clark said. "And she kept telling me, 'It looks fine, it looks fine!' She's been such a great teacher."

As Lynn Prahl put the finishing touches on her chair, she smiled at her work.

"This first one is going on the front porch of Town and Country RV Park," she said proudly.

At about 6 p.m., as the last group of women headed out of her driveway, Filter said the class had been her most successful yet.

"They go home at the end of the day with a new piece of furniture, and a new skill they can improve on from there. It is so fun to see their finished work. I was so happy, I felt like the proud mother of seven."

In addition to her bent-willow furniture business, Filter is also an aspiring pastel artist, and she and her husband, Bob, are building a bed-and-breakfast on their Trapper Creek property.