Our professional students have returned from their half-term break and this week are embarked on learning a centuries-old decorative technique. Once upon a time boulle work involved veneering tortoiseshell onto wood to create luxurious embellishments. It’s a process that was perfected by the French cabinetmaker André Charles Boulle in the 17th century, and came to …
Steam bending is a core skill in woodworking, involving strips of wood being steam heated in a steam box, then bent around a former to create a specific shape. It’s a technique still widely used today, and not just in furniture design. It’s a core element in, for example, creating musical instruments such as violins …
Ross Cunnison is proving that a relatively simple piece of furniture can be made wonderful with creative talent and a lot of skill. Ross, originally from Stonehaven but now living in Edinburgh, came on our professional course after ten years working offshore in the oil and gas sector. He decided to enrol on the course …
Anselm Fraser, principal of the Chippendale school, is writing a series of exclusive articles for The Woodworker magazine. Here’s the second of his articles. Last month I looked at the mental benefits that woodworking can bring, citing a book Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience by University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He describes …
Tom Smyth from Bristol has taken inspiration for his steam-bent oak garden bench from recent work he carried out repairing the roof of a listed 400-year-old timber framed barn in Hampshire. Although the scale of the roofing project was rather different, the principles of fashioning oak into strong and enduring structures are much the same. …
