Here's an inexpensive and fun craft you can try at home! Just grab a package of cheap clothespins at the Dollar Tree or your local equivalent purveyor of cheap disposable junk. A single package of 36 clothespins can make a pair of chairs this way!
For glue, I recommend against the Dollar Store cheap white PVA Elmer's glue knockoff though. It works, but good carpenter's glue or Aleen's Tacky Glue sets a lot faster and bonds a lot better even while still wet so you can build faster.
Step 1 is clothespin dissassembly. Discard the metal springs and keep the wood halves for the project. Don't mix up the discard pile and the project materials pile, or the rest of these instructions will make absolutely no sense. Just take my word on that.
The next step is to glue eleven pairs of clothespin halves together.
- 2 pairs face to face
- 4 pairs back to back
- 5 pairs back to back with the ends flipped
There should also be at least a dozen loose pieces for other parts of this project.
These are the pieces needed for the two side sections. Dry-fit everything before gluing anything!
Once the glue is applied, stack the halves and eyeball everything so they match. Just be sure to not accidentally glue them together at this point, because that will make the rest of the project a wee bit difficult.
The final glued pair of clothespin halves is the bottom rail linking the sides. The halves on the ends are NOT glued in place. They're just a handy measurement trick to help keep the side parallel. Just eyeballing that doesn't work too well.
Almost done! Just glue in four more clothespin halves! Two support the seat, and two form the backrest. More half-clothespins can be added to make the backrest more complete, or it can just be left as-is.
The seat is formed by laying five halves flat. I splurged on a 19th clothespin for a more elaborate backrest for this model.
I will use the rest of the clothespins to make a non-rocking chair, since I won't have enough for a second pair of rockers now. Watch the comments for a picture of that!