How to Make a Meditation Stool

A C T I V I T I E S • • C R A F T

Meditation Stools

or CUSHION >>
A few thoughts on meditation stools. You may also want to read the section on posture - see: LIFESTYLE / MEDITATION • There are two basic kinds - central stem and double legged. • They can vary in quality considerably depending on the materials used and the standard of workmanship. Neither needs to be of a very high standard to keep the old differential hovering. There are some very fancy 'ergonomic' models to be had (usually at quite an unergonomic price) but unless you have particular health problems it is unlikely that you will need one of these. There are a lot of outlets that will sell you a stool. •If you are thinking of making a stool then you could start by downloading the drawing of a folding two legged type shown in picture 3. Otherwise, I hope that these pictures will give you enough detail to experiment with various ideas you might have. • Remember: once you have your bottom placed and eyes closed what your stool looks like matter not a jot - it's what it feels like that is important and getting the right feel can take a while. Here are a few picures - which hopefully tell a thousand words. Happy hacking.
1 A very simple stool made out of joinery off-cuts. If you use odd bits of wood it is easy / cheap to experiment with the angle and the height of your stool. It is quite important to get this right.		2 Another simple stool made from ply wood. The distance between the legs can be varied to suit but you must consider the overal strength of both the materials you are using and the jointing detail at the leg. This example is a little more slender than 1 but the joints have been glued and screwed.
3 Hinged - two legged. The doodle at top right is a leg detail. This stool is very similar to the drawing you can download (clic the pic). The advantage of folding legs is portability - the disadvantage is the extra work and a slightly weaker joint.		4 This example has been hand carved from a single piece of wood. Getting the knuckle joint fitting nicely is quite a trick but the stool is both strong and portable. It is not that comfortable to sit on without some padding.
5 A nice bit of bandsaw work here but you could make a similar model without the curved seat. The main thing with the single leg is it gives slightly different leg positioning possibilities than the two legged type which constrict your legs to fitting between the stool legs.		6 A cheek hugging hand-crafted model with quite a long leg. Attention has to be given to the joint detail with a single leg as there is a lot of tilting pressure on the one joint. This one has been heavily mortised into the seat.
An incredibly simple solution to the T-stool idea... A piece of ply-board - as big as you require - with the leg being made from a length of PVC drain pipe (to the length you require). To hold the pipe in position cut a disk (internal diameter of the pipe) and fit it to the underside of the bench. Cheap and endlessly adjustable. Brilliant! ... the idea - not my art work.
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