Chippendale News

It may look like a tatty old garden seat, but it’s the template for a very special memorial. Last month, one of the Chippendale school’s longest-standing members of staff died. Isobel Edgar (pictured below), the school’s student welfare officer, had worked with the Chippendale team for 25 years, and passed away following a stroke. This […]

Rachel Faulkner from Newcastle continues to demonstrate considerable artistic talent, and is busy carving a pair of intertwined hands into lime for her professional course mirror – something that all our students have to make. She’s already completed a sycamore and elm bench, with two drawers and two cabinets, with three images of her dog

Today we meet Gary Staple, who graduated in 2014, and who owns and runs his own business Gary Staple Fine Woodworking in Nova Scotia.  His first bit of advice to new woodworkers is to keep their overheads low. “The first few years will be the most difficult and high overheads can sink a new company. 

It’s the time of year when many people begin to think about obtaining a new qualification or changing career. If that’s you, and you’ve always fancied a future in fine furniture design and making, do remember that our final Early Bird offer ends at the end of April. As in previous years, we do encourage

Belen Gallego, our most recent intermediate course student, will be leaving us on Friday to return home to Barcelona. She’ll be taking with her a beautifully-designed and hand-crafted writing desk that she has made during her month with us. The olive ash desk with chalk-painted cabriole legs will soon have pride of place in her

Last week we welcomed ten introductory course students to the school, including a husband and wife and the stepmother of one of our professional course students. Doreen McGlone, who thoroughly enjoyed the course, is stepmother to Matthew McGlone, who is on this year’s professional course. Woodworking also seems to be in the family blood, with