I finished up year two of having my classes at the mill in Rollinsford and could not be more pleased. I just renewed my lease for three more years! The classes are exactly what I had hoped for. Being well set up, having enough space and most importantly having enough time to teach the content has made it a pleasure to go to work. I had a great group of folks last year and can’t wait for the upcoming classes. Right now, I am teaching 23 students at the North Bennet Street School. It’s an annual event for me and makes my January exciting and challenging. I love getting to meet these folks who will be so much a part of the future of the craft. Here are some pics of my last class in December. Most of the class had to pack their chairs to fly home to the west coast and even Denmark, so here are the two fully glued chairs.
I’ve been adopting and innovating some new techniques for these more complicated pieces that have worked out beautifully. The chairs from this class came out beautifully and assembled so sweetly that they looked like a matched set. I will be showing some of the new ideas here as I hope they might be helpful to the folks working at the craft in their own shops.
Here is me teaching at NBSS.
That look on my face is probably just fear that the crowd is about to get rowdy and I’ll have a full scale mutiny on my hands. I’ve been fortunate to have a great crew of folks assist me this year. Charlie Ryland, Aspen Golann, Claire Minihan, Karen Cascone, Kelly Harris, Dave Hancock and Joel Paul have all pitched in to make sure that my classes run smoothly and that my students get all the attention that they need. I feel so lucky to have the best of talents at my side when I do teach, it makes it a real pleasure.
There are still a few class opportunities for those looking to participate. I have openings in my class March 9-15, which is a combo class where you can build a Continuous Arm chair or Side chair, registration starts on Jan 18th at 8 am. Email me to sign up for the 4 open spots. Kentucky at the Woodworking School at Pine Croft (last I heard there were 2). All my other classes in Rollinsford are full until the fall, but getting on a wait list is often successful for attending an already booked class, just contact me and I’ll be sure to put you on the list.
I’ll announce a few more classes for the end of the year in the coming months.
Here is a perfect bend that I made recently in Kiln dried hard maple for a temple chair
I’m so excited for this work. One of my goals in the last year has been to expand my designs and technology to make it easier for folks who don’t have access to the trees and green wood to enjoy building chair with as much of the fun and good design that I can pack into them. There is no reason that great chairs can’t be made with readily available woods and the basic tools that I enjoy. Stay tuned for more on the new techniques, their coming hard and fast these days!