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Woodworking Tips

2023 woodworking trends  

A new year doesn’t always bring with it new trends, but January does provide an ideal time to look at and consider the shifts and swings of what’s ‘current’ in the woodworking world.   Trends are by no means prescriptive at the Chippendale School, where every student is encouraged to find their own signature style – …

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Woodworking careers: Furniture making

For many, a furniture making career feels like a distant dream. Although they have a passion for woodwork and design, many would-be woodworkers don’t realise that furniture making is a viable career option.

A value for everything, and the cost of selling nothing

In the last of his series of articles on modern woodworking, Anselm Fraser, principal of the Chippendale International School of Furniture, looks at the thorny issue of how to price bespoke furniture. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, the 19th century playwright, would have understood the problem completely. In his play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, he writes …

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Choosing your tree to make flawless furniture

The Chippendale International School of Furniture, half an hour from Edinburgh, is situated in rolling East Lothian countryside close to fantastic mature forests of oak, elm, lime, ash, chestnut, sycamore and beech trees; an environment with all the raw materials needed to make flawless furniture.

“We teach students on our nine month course to plant a tree, choose a tree, fell it and plank it,” says Anselm Fraser, Chippendale Furniture School Principal.
“There is much more to selecting a good tree for furniture making than you might think. You need to understand the effects of shrinkage, defects in the wood and warp.”

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