Student Stories Archives - Chippendale School of Furniture

Ballet in wood

Last week saw another of our popular one-week introductory courses.

They’re designed to give students a taste for woodworking and raise their DIY skills.

But for some, it also allows them to decide if a career in fine woodworking might be for them.

One student who is considering just that is Simon Schilgen from Heidelberg in Germany.

He’s an artist with Scottish Ballet in Glasgow, and has been with the company for some five years.

Previously, he trained in Germany and was a dancer with companies in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Essen.

But professional ballet dancing is not a career that can be pursued forever.

Through a fund to help dancers find career development, Simon’s introductory course fees were paid for by the charity.

He wanted to explore another artistic avenue for when he finally hangs up his dancing shoes, and woodworking may be his chosen path.

The good news is that, in one more year, he could qualify with the charitable fund to have his professional course fees paid for at the Chippendale school.

The other good news is, if he does come to us again, his introductory course fees will be deducted.

Simon was the first ballet dancer on any of our courses, and we hope he decides to study with us again in the future.

Note: Two places still remain for our nine-month professional course which starts next month.

Making success happen

Anselm Fraser, principal, writing in The Woodworker magazine

It’s a tough world out there and, alas, there are no shortcuts to becoming a successful woodworker.

At our school, our nine-month professional course equips students with all the skills they need to set up in business as fine furniture designers.

As part of the course, we also make sure that students understand the basics of business planning and marketing. Those are the two fundamentals that underpin success.

It’s our way of making sure that our students graduate with realistic expectations and an understanding that success takes perseverance.

So what are some of the pitfalls? Let some of our former students give some advice.

Ewan Ogilvie

Scotland-based Ewan Ogilvie studied with us between 2012 and 2013, and cautions woodworkers to only design and create to the highest standards.

“Your previous customers can be your best advertisers,” he says. He also warns students to have realistic expectations when they graduate.

“It’s a fantastic way to make a living,” says Ewan, “and I wouldn’t now change it for the world, but establishing yourself in the market takes time and hard work.”

Sam Rouse

Sam Rouse (2015-2016) from the USA has a more cautionary tale.

After graduation, when he landed back in the USA, he found a voicemail from an interior designer on his phone.

She had a client who had just built a $1million dollar home and who was looking for upwards of 15 pieces of furniture.

Sam immediately set up a workshop in North Carolina. One month later the client disappeared and stole the Interior designer’s designs.

Start small

“That’s how my story starts,” says Sam. “New city, wife, one daughter, no work.

“That’s the bad news. The good news? Three years later I am making furniture at Sam Rouse Furniture and loving it. Although I am still new to woodworking, I have learned so much over the past three years.”

Sam’s advice is to start small to avoid taking on too much debt by buying expensive tools and machinery.

Sam also cautions about pricing. “My first project was a desk that took two months to make and I charged $800. Terrible! But don’t also fall into the trap of over-charging.

“Work out what you need to live and pay the bills, then slowly increase your prices as time goes on. That’s worked for me.”

Gary Staple

Gary Staple, Nova Scotia, Canada (2013-2014) also advises new woodworkers to keep their overheads low.

“The first few years will be the most difficult and high overheads can sink a new company. My advice is not to rush out and buy lots of shiny new equipment, but do buy quality in the tools you use the most.”

He also emphasises the importance of pricing. “It’s easy to price too low, but the fact of the matter is that custom furniture is a high-end market product.

He also advises new woodworkers to document everything and take lots of photographs. “The internet is your greatest sales tool, but only your best pieces should make it onto the website. Build your online presence with good content.”

Lastly, Gary also warns new woodworkers to have sensible expectations. “Grow slow, be patient, and don’t rush into your dream workshop until you’re sure you can afford it,” he says.

Mike Whittal at the Chippendale furniture school

Mike Whittall

Mike Whittall, Scotland (2015-2016) was fortunate to ‘hit the ground running’ with a good commission from an ex-colleague. He advises new woodworkers not to underestimate their existing network of friends, relations or former colleagues.

He set up his own workshop at home and made a plan to design and make new furniture, take on restoration work and run woodworking courses.

“The idea was to create three complementary income streams which could fit round each other and show customers a variety of activity. For a creative, this might all sound a bit too much like business speak. But, ultimately, a business was what I needed as well as being an outlet for my creative ideas,” says Mike.

“Just under three years on, the plan is starting to show growth. The commissions are beginning to come, restoration projects are now fairly regular and I have developed a series of weekend courses.

Rewarding

“I won’t pretend it’s been a walk in the park, but that’s the reality for any business start-up.

“To extend an oft-used phrase, this whole thing has been a real journey, both frustrating and rewarding and I wouldn’t change a single thing!” says Mike.

All those students have now made it in the world of fine furniture design and making.

But despite working in different parts of the world, and specialising in different areas of woodworking, their sage advice is much the same.

Be realistic, start small, don’t pile up unnecessary debt on expensive equipment you’ll rarely use.

But, above all, persevere!

Spalted console

A simple fact about bespoke furniture is that good design sells.

That’s a lesson that Fiona Gilfillan, one of recent professional course graduates has learned.

During her course, she made a spalted Sycamore and Elm console table, which sold at the graduate exhibition.

She was then commissioned by another customer to make a second console table.

Now she’s just completing a third, making her something of a console queen.

Fiona was the second student on our newly-introduced month-long intermediate course last year.

FeeMade

Then, despite not initially intending to make woodworking her life, she enrolled on our 2018/19 professional course.

Fiona is now setting up FeeMade from incubation space at the school.

Those spaces, Myreside Studios, are one of the ways we try to help graduates in their early careers.

Because we don’t believe that education and support should end when our students graduate.

Instead, in a more holistic approach, our Myreside Studios allow graduates to set themselves up in business from the school’s campus.

We give them good working space and full access to equipment and machinery.

They also have continued help from our tutors, so that they don’t have to feel isolated.

Myreside Studios

That’s important because our students build up close working relationships with other students, with everyone learning from each other.

Myreside Studios allow those working relationships to extend into professional life so that, in a very real sense, the school is a community of students and professional woodworkers.

Fiona also has one other claim to Chippendale woodworking fame.

She first came to us on a one-week introductory course, making her the only person to have completed all three of our courses.

Fiona is gifted and hard-working and we’re hugely pleased that she’s staying on at the school.

Note: Two places still remain for our professional course that starts next month. More information here or contact us here.

Brexit divides cabinet

Stephen Barr, one of our recent professional course graduates, first came to the school on a one-week introductory course.

It’s a good way for potential professional woodworkers to see if they really do have sawdust in their veins.

And if they do, and enrol onto our professional course, the introductory course fees are deducted.

It’s a route into woodworking that several professional course students have taken, having proved to themselves that woodworking is the career for them.

For Stephen, originally from Northern Ireland but now living in Edinburgh, it was a bold change of professional direction.

His previous career was in IT consultancy, with his own company, which he sold.

Stephen’s stand-out piece, for which he won this year’s Richard Demarco Prize, was a humorous statement on the vexed question of Brexit.

His “Strong and Stable Brexit Cabinet” was just as divided as the country on the issue.

EU stars

His two-door cabinet in Walnut and Japanese Ash depicted the Union Jack on one door, and the EU’s stars on the other.

Also, one of the EU’s stars was missing…a visual quip about the UK’s intention to (maybe) leave the EU.

In our experience, furniture sells when it’s well-made and carries a design that turns it into a talking point.

Not only was Stephen’s cabinet extremely well made but his fun design gave it topical appeal.

In the run-up to the school’s graduation exhibition, several newspapers – including The Times – carried stories about his cabinet.

At the exhibition itself he was awarded The Richard Demarco Prize 2019.

Demarco

This annual prize is awarded by Professor Richard Demarco CBE, one of the UK’s leading arts commentators.

Professor Demarco’s prize is awarded to the student whose work not only displays design and woodworking skill but exceptional artistic talent.

Stephen is now setting up Starship Unicorn Furniture from incubation space at the school.

These spaces, Myreside Studios, are another good reason to study at the Chippendale school.

They allow graduates to immediately set up in business and make full use of the school’s equipment and machinery.

They also still have tutor support in case of difficulty in those important early months.

It’s all part of the school’s holistic approach to teaching woodworking and helping our students post-graduation.

Note: Two places still remain unfilled on our professional course 2019/20, which starts next month. More information here or contact us here.

Finding inspiration

Inspiration is something that we can all struggle with, and sometimes we find it in unusual places.

The lesson is that, wherever you find inspiration, grab it with both hands.

That was true of recent professional course graduate Tom Smyth from Bristol whose previous job was on a community farm in Somerset.

Tom knew that furniture making was for him having already undertaken evening classes in woodworking – and realising how much he enjoyed it.

Tom’s simple philosophy was that he enjoys making things, and he wanted a new career doing just that.

His stand-out piece during the course was a monumental garden seat, inspired by work he carried out on the roof of a listed 400-year-old timber framed barn in Hampshire.

Symphony

OK, it’s may seem a strange link, but you have to take inspiration wherever you find it.

His seat was a symphony in majestic steam-bending, and held together using only pegged mortice and tenon joints.

Tom’s approach was to take a straightforward garden bench design, but make it bigger and more striking.

It was therefore a design that took the ordinary and transformed it into something special.

No wonder that his bench was snapped up by an eager buyer at our graduate exhibition.

Tom’s second piece was a lovely plant stand cabinet made from lustrous Lime.

But, finding inspiration from a completely different source, the top of the piece was delicately carved and gilded with yellow gold in a pattern that echoed the Buddhist tree of life.

It comprised a series of vases or containers, with plants spilling out, decorated with colours found on Buddhist prayer flags.

Tom’s finished collection also comprised a Sycamore lampstand and Sycamore baker’s block with granite top.

We’re pleased that he’s found work with Allangrange Furniture Restoration, run by our first ever student, Jayjay Gladwin.

Woodwork calling

Paul Hartman was this year’s recipient of the Public’s Choice Award.

It’s an award that is voted on by visitors to the school’s professional course graduation exhibition in Edinburgh.

It’s a real accolade because those visitors are representative of the buying public.

Paul, from Alberta, Canada already had construction and carpentry experience when he came to us last year.

His love of woodworking stems from his time at High School and working in the school’s workshop.

Paul’s decision to come to the school was based on a desire to challenge himself, and learn the craft of designing and making fine furniture.

Divinity

But he could have chosen a different path, having originally studied Divinity at a Canadian seminary.

However, he decided that his faith could best be practiced from outside the church.

We’re glad that he made that decision because he turned out to be a hugely gifted furniture designer and maker.

In particular, he made one of the finest rocking chairs that we’ve seen for some years.

Inspired by the late Sam Maloof whose rockers are in national collections, Paul’s chair had a ‘woven’ back seat.

But it was also an honest piece, reflecting both the complexity and simplicity of good design.

Public

That quality is something that was evident in Paul’s other pieces and the reason, perhaps, why the Edinburgh public liked them so much.

For example, his Elm coffee table decorated with a compass rose, and his Yew hall table, with a frame of rippled Sycamore.

Some furniture designers go a bit overboard and create funky, loud pieces that may only appeal to a very few buyers.

Others stick to the traditional, making quiet furniture that may be well-made but doesn’t have a WOW factor.

Paul steered a middle course between those design approaches, creating softly-spoken pieces that had absolutely no need to shout their quality.

Paul has now returned to his native Alberta and set up his own furniture design business, Dry Tree Construction.

Note: Two places still remain for our professional course that starts next month. More information here or contact us here.

Steam and drinks

Grant Anderson came on our professional course having been a keen hobbyist for some years.

He graduated in June, having won our Students’ Choice Award.

This award is voted on by our students, and recognises someone who they regard as a particularly gifted woodworker.

Grant, originally from Zimbabwe, lived in London for some 14 years and worked in the motorbike business.

As a hobbyist, Grant learned some basic skills from YouTube, other internet sites and books.

Those skills were put to good use when he renovated a flat, and realised that the woodworking bug had taken over.

His first piece was an Oak coffee table, with nine strips of steam-bent Oak per leg.

It had brass decoration at each end, five Oak planks as its top, with breadboarded end-pieces held in place with pegs.

Steam bending is a core skill in woodworking, and a technique that we teach early on in our professional course.

It involves strips of wood being steam heated in a steam box, then bent around a former to create a specific shape.

Grant’s table was an ambitious piece and most of our students, as their first piece of furniture, would have made the table with more easily-constructed legs.

Grant, however, won his Student’s Choice award for his stand-out drinks cabinet, which incorporated some 1.8 metres of tambour doors.

Tambour

Adding complexity to complexity, the external tambour doors were attached to an inner tambour mechanism.

Open the cabinet, and the inner and outer tambour doors moved in opposite directions.

Another design flourish was added with the creation of a secret compartment, with an opening mechanism controlled by burr Elm cup holders.

Grant’s design was all about displaying an ordinary blended whisky bottle, and hiding the single malt whisky.

It was therefore a drinks cabinet to offer hospitality to casual friends, or better hospitality to very good friends.

Grant’s cabinet was complex and intricate, underlining both his design and making skills.

Those considerable skills mean that Grant is well on his way to a new career in fine woodworking.

Introductory professional

There are some people who just know that a professional woodworking course is absolutely what they want to do.

Others, however, are not so sure.

It may be that they’ve had no prior woodworking experience or lack design skills.

But not to worry, because the Chippendale school doesn’t require experience or skill. All we look for is a desire to learn those skills, which everyone does.

For those still undecided, one option is to enrol on one of our one-week introductory courses.

These are designed to give students a taste of woodworking. Therefore, to give the undecided a chance to make that decision.

It’s why, if an introductory course student does then enrol on our professional course, the introductory course fees are deducted in full.

That’s the route that Ross Cunnison from Edinburgh took.

Geophysics

He had previously worked offshore for ten years in the oil and gas sector. He also studied geophysics at the University of Edinburgh.

His decision to enrol on our professional course was made having enjoyed one of our introductory courses last year.

Ross’ decision turned out to be a good one because he proved to be a skilled woodworker and won our Best Design Award.

It’s an annual award that we give to the student who, in our opinion, shows real design talent.

What we liked about Ross’ furniture was its simple honesty, yet with well-crafted flourishes that made the ordinary sublime.

That was particularly true of his Olive Ash side cabinet or credenza, with two beautifully-dovetailed drawers and two cupboards.

Imagination

Its creativity lay in a waterfall edge, with the grain of the wood perfectly falling from the cabinet’s top and down its sides.

That honest approach to furniture design is something that all good woodworkers have to master.

Because good design is about making utterly functional furniture, but with a little imagination thrown in.

Good design is therefore about subtlety, and instinctively understanding the interplay between form and function.

It’s an instinct that Ross demonstrated, and we’re delighted that he’s now setting up his own furniture making business, Ross Cunnison Bespoke Furniture.

Professional, intermediate

Eion Gibbs, who graduated from our professional course in June, was also our first intermediate course student.

He first came to us on our month-long course while recovering from malaria.

He’d been working as a film cameraman on two charitable projects, the Kilimanjaro Project and Trees 4 Kilimanjaro.

Both charities are highlighting the environmental damage that is being done to Africa’s largest mountain, and the surrounding farmers who are affected.

Eion enjoyed the intermediate course so much that it inspired a change of career direction, and a new life as a professional woodworker.

His stand-out piece during his year with us was a monumental piece of furniture standing five feet tall.

“The Shape Shifter Cabinet” contained twenty-two compartments, with most of them being a different size.

Magnet

It comprised three horizontal sections, which were interchangeable, with each compartment being opened by a magnet.

It was therefore a functional and quirky piece of furniture, crafted from Oak, Sycamore, Ash, spalted Beech and Elm.

Its front was decorated in a harlequin triangle pattern fashioned from Ash and Oak. Adding to its charm, it also had secret compartments and a gilded chess set that folded into a drawer.

After graduation, most of our students take a well-earned holiday.

Not so Eion, who had already won his first commission – for an even more monumental piece.

His commission for a shepherd’s hut was for a customer in Southampton. It was to be a surprise 50th birthday present for his client’s wife.

The humble shepherd’s hut, which stands on iron wheels, was once a common sight across much of the country.

Lambing

It allowed shepherds to keep a close eye on their flocks, particularly during lambing season.

But it’s making something of a revival, because it can be put to a whole number of uses – and doesn’t usually need planning permission.

Nowadays, shepherd’s huts are used as garden rooms, spare bedrooms, reading nooks, outdoor gyms, or home offices.

Only recently, former prime minister David Cameron commissioned one to be his writing room.

Eion’s hut was completed with a bed and wood-burning stove. Other shepherd’s hut designs can have a toilet or shower.

The school has a shepherd’s hut on our campus and, underlining their flexibility, it was used last summer as a bedroom for one of our students.

This year it was used as a physiotherapy treatment room, by the girlfriend of one of our professional course students.

Eion’s Douglas Fir hut had tongue-and-groove Pine interior walls, Douglas Fir floor, six windows and double doors.

Eion has set up Belladrum Woodworking and is staying on at the school in incubation space.

These spaces, Myreside Studios, allow graduates to more easily make the transition into professional woodworking.

They have full access to the school’s equipment and, if they have a problem, they can seek help from our tutors.

It’s all part of the school’s holistic approach, giving our students the best tuition and a valuable aftercare package.

We’re delighted that Eion is staying on with us, and we wish him every success.

Note: We still have two vacancies for our professional nine-month course that starts next month.

Holding a mirror to love

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 Management.

Both Steve and his wife have long had an interest in traditional crafts and ways of working. Those include everything from weaving to ceramics, and from woodworking to lace making.

He’s particularly been influenced by the Lost Trades Fair in Australia. This is all about promoting traditional crafts made by people not machines.

It’s also a movement that has ideals of sustainability and educational outreach and, in different guises, is gaining traction worldwide.

Steve’s stand-out piece was a beautiful mirror with an enigmatic message.

Chaucer

The mirror, in white Oak, had the words, “The lyf so short” across its top.

Below, it had “The craft so long to lerne.”

It’s a good quote because the artistry involved in woodworking is also a process of lifelong learning.

However, the quote is actually from the 14th century writer Geoffrey Chaucer. It comes from his epic poem, The Parliament of Fowles.

The quote is about love and how learning how to love is a skill, or craft, in itself.

But the enigma of the quote goes further because the poem describes a flock of birds gathering in the early spring – on ‘seynt valentynes day.’ The birds are there to choose their mate for the year.

It’s believed that the poem later became the inspiration for St Valentine’s Day.

The words on Steve’s mirror were oil gilded in 24 carat gold. The mirror itself was decorated with the iconic rose motifs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The result was a thought-provoking mirror, with a powerful punch of a message, and beautifully executed.

Student Stories