By Joy Kraft
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rick Metz of Anderson Township hopes his Wave chair (about $899) feels as good as it looks. (Brandi Stafford photo)

There was no lightning.

But on a rainy Sunday early this year, while playing with his sons and a wad of Silly Putty, Rick Metz, 50, was struck by a vision. Of a chair.

No big surprise, since he's been mending tired and broken chairs of all shapes and sizes for 17 years, first for Closson's, then for his own business, the Chair Repair Shoppe, now in Newtown.

But the chair in his mind's eye was different, not upright like most that pass through his hands, but sinuous, comfortable . . . and totally unbreakable.

"I've seen so many broken chairs. If I am going to build one, it's going to be one that won't break or need to be repaired," says the Anderson Township artisan who introduces his "Wave Chair" this week at Contemporary Gallery, Bova and the Design Consortium.

"At first, when I was playing with the Silly Putty, I thought it would be a good child's chair for playing video games. But it designed itself and changed into something very different," says Metz.

After making a cardboard model and a week of sculpting full-size prototypes of the chair, he could think of little else.

He sold his repair business.

"It had me," he says.

The chair frame is made of two arcs of layered Russian birch molded to be extremely durable, "kind of like the layers in a kid's skateboard," he says. The frame is topped with an upholstered undulating seat in bright, solid fabrics.

The shape, "like an elongated sports car seat," is highly contemporary - but comfortable at the same time.

For a true test, and an honest evaluation, he took a chair to Mary Ann Cortoy at the Design Consortium in O'Bryonville, once his boss at Closson's, and held his breath while she tried it, expecting a litany of suggestions.

She had none.

"She said she wanted to put it on the floor. I left her a few photos and she called a short time later and said she'd sold one already," Metz says.

Another designer told Metz it was the first chair that didn't hurt his back after 15 minutes. Others with back problems have said the chair gives them the support they need, especially in the lower back.

The 60-inch long chair can be adjusted on the frame to different positions and is designed to suit people who are 6-feet-tall or under.

"It's very stylish." says Metz, "But I want people to say 'Wow.' I want it to feel even better than it looks."

The chair is priced at about $899.

Next up is a version for taller people - and that video game chair idea that started it all.

Besides Design Consortium, Metz's chair is being sold at Bova, Symmes Township, and Contemporary Galleries, downtown. This spring, he will do a custom version for SIT (Seating Interior Themes), Anderson Township.

E-mail jkraft@enquirer.com