Anselm Fraser, the school’s principal, writing in The Woodworker magazine A common mistake that many woodworkers make is to spend too much time trying to create originality. The fact is that originality is over-rated. Instead, the advice I give to my woodworking students is to simply follow their instincts, and see where it takes them.
Be yourself, not a version of yourself Read More »
Anselm Fraser, principal, The Chippendale International School of Furniture, writing in The Woodworker magazine. I’ve been teaching furniture design and making for well over 30 years, so you might think that I know everything there is to know. But while my aim has always been to help students become wonderful woodworkers and help them create
Learning from each other Read More »
Anselm Fraser, principal, The Chippendale International School of Furniture, writing in The Woodworker magazine. Inspiration can be defined as finding a new or better way of answering a question, solving a problem or, for us woodworkers, coming up with a better design for a piece of furniture. But finding inspiration can be a hard task.
We’re proud that the Chippendale school has such an excellent international reputation. That, of course, is mainly down to the quality of our teaching. But we also offer something else at the school: a holistic approach to learning that doesn’t end when you graduate. During the course, for example, students learn about business planning and
Lynn Bickle from Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland is our second intermediate course student. She joins Kelvin Palmer, a retired hospital consultant from East Lothian, who also started last week. Despite being here for only a few days, Lynn is well into making an art deco table in lacewood and fumed oak. It’s an ambitious and complex
Last week, two intermediate course students started on their one-month stay with us. One, Kelvin Palmer from East Lothian, is a retired hospital consultant. He comes to us with little woodworking experience. His interest in furniture making was sparked by coming to our end-of-term exhibition. The idea of woodworking as a serious hobby in retirement
