Nashville Arts Magazine

Spotlight | Alan Daigre

Handcrafted Rocking Chairs

Alan Daigre is a chair maker and hand-tool craftsman living in Readyville, Tennessee, a rural farming community sixty miles southeast of Nashville. Daigre developed an appreciation for history and heritage growing up in beautiful Natchez, Mississippi, the oldest city on the Mississippi River. From that time he has held a fascination for the “old ways” and for a time when people used their hands and a few simple tools to make what was needed to get by.

Daigre’s work is often inspired by natural textures and clean, simple lines. He takes pride in creating rope rockers that are not only beautiful but meticulously constructed and unsurpassed in comfort. Materials are selected based on grain patterns and texture, and careful attention is given to detail in joinery and finishing work. Every chair and rope rocker is uniquely crafted from a mix of indigenous Tennessee hardwoods, often from his seventy-acre property.

Daigre is also a cofounder of Appalachian Life Workshops, a traditional handcraft school, located on the site of a 150-year-old homestead on his property. He and fellow craftsman Jim McGie teach a variety of old-time woodworking skills, such as Spoon Carving, Chair Making, Poplar Bark Baskets, Harvesting and Weaving Hickory Bark, and Hewing Dough Bowls.

Visit www.appalachianlifeworkshops.com for more details.