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How to market yourself the Chippendale way

Becoming a successful furniture maker is about more than woodworking skills and design talent. Marketing yourself is key to establishing a profitable furniture business. 

Where tradition meets technology

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as creating something by hand. If you’ve ever received a handmade object, or made one yourself, you’ll appreciate the unique beauty of those tiny imperfections and asymmetries. It’s just one of the reasons why more people are choosing to furnish their homes with hand-finished objects over mass-produced designs -no two pieces are the same.

QEST Funding to Help Further your Training

Are you an aspiring craftsperson looking to develop your skills and unsure how to fund your studies?

You can apply to The Queen Elizabther Scholarship Trust (QEST) for funding of up to £18,000 towards your course.

How to start a woodworking business

We all put things off until later. An unanswered email. An unwashed dish. An unwalked dog. 

Some things though, are too important to put off. Finding a career that makes you happy can have a huge impact on your overall enjoyment of life. If you’ve always told yourself you’d love to start a woodworking business ‘one day’, then our question to you is, why wait? 

Olive ash and Oli

The very best furniture carries within its design a little bit of the maker’s DNA.

It’s the kind of design touch we encourage on our professional course at the Chippendale school because it’s those small flourishes that really put the bespoke into fine furniture.

That’s the case with Oli Juliusson’s beautifully-crafted olive ash table.

Oli, from Hafnarfjardur in Iceland, was a trawlerman for ten years, before deciding on a new career on dry land.

However, as he admits, fishing will always be in his blood, and his table echoes that seafaring background.

For a start, he’s named his table the Dolphin, after the fishing vessel he sailed on, and the design of the table’s legs reflect the architecture of the ship’s gallows – the arched structure at the rear of the ship (pictured above).

Oli plans to return to Iceland after graduation, making furniture that honours the lives of Icelandic fishermen – but, such is the lure of the sea, may also spend time at his old job.