Junior Zander Murren recently qualified for a national woodworking competition that will be held in Las Vegas during July. Outside of school, Zander has his own wood shop, which is where he built his piece.

Zander submitted his “Sam Maloof inspired rocking chair,” which was made out of walnut wood. Outside of using his personal woodshop that he worked on for the past several years, he also used DP’s woodshop for its specialized tools.

“Malloy, the DP construction teacher … allowed me to use some of the woodshop funds to purchase from our local lumber store, Channel City Lumber, a bunch of walnut for the chair,” Zander said.

After obtaining the materials, constructing the chair took several months of work to finally be completed, but it wasn’t always a smooth process.

“I cut a few things wrong, messed a few things up there. And we had some just general issues, things like the arm patch didn’t fit on correctly, but we managed to work around it and it came out perfect,” he said.

Zander’s walnut rocking chair was inspired by late woodworker Sam Maloof who built a whole collection of woodworks. Zander got the design of his rocking chair by following an instruction book by Hal Taylor.

“Sam Maloof was a very famous and … well known woodworker…but he is known for his rocking chairs,” Zander said.

Before Sam Maloof’s passing in 2009, he had several pieces that were displayed in museums across the US. Hal Taylor is one of the many who make collections based on Maloof’s work so that people like Zander can also create his pieces.

“So many people recreate [Sam Maloof’s style] as their entire woodworking business… And that’s how I made most of the things in the chair,” he said.

The convention in which Zander is attending for the final competition is located in Las Vegas and is the second biggest woodworking show in the world. Major woodworking businesses that make power tools, finishes and more will be at the convention. The AWFS (Association of Woodworking & Furnishing Suppliers) show will host the Fresh Wood Competition during the convention.

“The freshman competition is the student section of …this big fair. So that’s off to the sides, [a] little mini competition,” Zander said.

There are 21 other high schoolers competing for the grand prize of $1000. Second place gets $500 while the other participants get $250.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience. I’m basically just surrounded with a bunch of woodworking nerds and I am one myself so that’ll be very fun,” he said.

While the competition is still a couple months away, Zander is already happy with himself for making it to the finals.

“My biggest accomplishment was getting in. That was the first thing I wanted to do.” Zander said. “I was super hyped about getting in, win or lose.”