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This week saw our professional course students learn the delicate skill of oyster work, which is a decorative form of veneering or parquetry. It’s a technique that uses thin slices of wood cut in cross-section to form circular or oval pieces of veneer which, when placed side by side, create any kind of decorative pattern […]

The Chippendale school runs different levels of woodworking design and making courses – from our one-week introductory course, to our one-month intermediate course and nine-month professional course. We are now to introduce a number of one-week complementary courses that are intended to teach skills ancillary to furniture design and making, while still being relevant to

The Chippendale school is one of the world’s pre-eminent schools of furniture design and making, and we’re looking to recruit an experienced tutor to join our team. The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate all-round woodworking and design skills, with appropriate qualifications, and should preferably have teaching experience in a woodworking environment. He or

Alex Stanton, from Brisbane in Australia, is completing his first major project – a stunning ash console table, with beautiful decorative flourishes. Many students would have made relatively simple legs for what is primarily a functional piece of hallway furniture, but Alex has moulded laminated supports that are a design echo of Gothic cathedral architecture.

Gordon Young from Edinburgh is well on the way to completing a beautiful and functional desk in oak and flamed beech. Gordon, who has a Masters degree in civil engineering from Heriot-Watt University, is someone who has always been a natural at making things. That innate skill is evident in his desk, which will have

Anselm Fraser, principal, Chippendale school Our professional course is all about teaching students the skills they’ll need for a career in fine woodworking. It’s a course that we’ve refined over the years, and an approach to teaching and learning that, we believe, can’t be bettered elsewhere. But our professional course also recognises that, while we