Steve Tripp’s journey to the Chippendale school and our professional course took four years to plan. Steve, a former IT consultant from Minnesota, finally made the move, with his wife also enrolling at a university in Edinburgh. While he was busy learning his new woodworking trade, she completed a Masters in Arts, Culture and Festival …
Anselm Fraser, principal, the Chippendale school’s principal, writes in The Woodworker magazine. Oscar Wilde, the 19th century playwright, expressed it perfectly. In his play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, he wrote that a cynic is “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Like much of Oscar Wilde’s work, his comedy hides a biting …
We’re often asked how we can turn novices into professional woodworkers in only 30 weeks. The answer is that we have the very best teaching methods and staff. Our professional course has been running for well over thirty years. So, we have learned what works to ensure that our graduates have all the skills they …
Our students at the Chippendale school become good woodworkers by learning the rules of good furniture design. However, we also encourage them to then tear up the rule book. Because great furniture design can also be about incorporating the right level of quirky surprise. It’s about making something that is entirely functional, and then adding …
A young Australian furniture designer who graduated from the Chippendale school professional course in June has been shortlisted for two awards in the prestigious Young Furniture Makers Awards. Alex Stanton has been shortlisted, first, for his Shou Sugi Ban hall table in Ash (Design Award). The second shortlisting was for his sideboard in Rosewood and …
Some students come to us straight from school, but many leave it a few years before enrolling at the Chippendale school. Many feel pressured to go into higher education and then into a job that they find unfulfilling. That’s when it becomes a choice between the conventional or following their dreams. We believe at the …
