We’ve posted about graduating students who have already set up in business, turning their Chippendale qualification into a professional career.
Here are four more talented woodworkers who have also taken the plunge, two of them taking advantage of incubation spaces at the school – the perfect and low-cost way into professional woodworking.
Alan Nisbet is setting up Alan Nisbet Bespoke Furniture from workshops just outside Edinburgh. His “vorticular vinyl cabinet”, a record player with style and attitude, was a standout piece this year. Alan will be moving into his new premises later this year.
Andrew Cockerill is a woodworker by day, and a guitarist by night. What better signature piece could he have designed during his year with us than a guitar cabinet in oak and sycamore, with an innovative opening mechanism? Andrew is staying on in incubation space at the school.
Sherrardswood Bespoke Furniture
Helen Guy’s signature piece during her year at the school was her Magical Memory Chest, a beautiful and unusual piece of furniture, and lined with lustrous copper leaf so that, when opened, it conjures an explosion of light. It was chosen to be exhibited this summer at the Scottish parliament. Helen will be based in Edinburgh.
Joanna Majewska from Poland is another ex-student who isn’t moving far from the school as she sets up her new business. She’s also moved into incubation space, able to make continued use of our machinery and tutor support. Her drinks cabinet with a clock-like wooden opening mechanism is a thing of charm and beauty.
“The incubation units at the school offer a perfect solution to graduating students who don’t immediately want to invest in their own workshop. They offer an easier route into professional woodworking, with the added bonus of being around other like-minded people and with the skills of our tutors always at hand,” said Anselm Fraser, the Chippendale school’s principal.