The Fine Furniture Guild was established in 2017 by Chippendale School founder Anselm Fraser, to celebrate its alumni and help connect fine furniture makers with consumers. We have been working hard on developing a new look and feel for the Guild in our 35th anniversary year and are excited to announce the launch of our new website: www.finefurnitureguild.com.
Read MoreNovember was an exciting month at the Chippendale School, as we welcomed our new class of Professional Course students to the workshops of our furniture making school. The start of term brought with it 26 new faces and lots of inspiring energy from our latest pupils.
We are really looking forward to seeing how they develop their skills over the coming nine months of hard work. They will learn essential furniture design and woodworking techniques, with our expert tutors giving their insight so students can grow into master fine furniture makers and start their own businesses.
Read MoreAn interview with Anselm Fraser, Chippendale School Founder
The Chippendale School was established in 1985. Taking us back in time before the woodworking school was born, can you tell us where your furniture making journey began?
AF: From a very young age, I was obsessed with working with my hands. I was not, and still am not, an academic person so school was not easy, particularly as I am heavily dyslexic. I recall many an afternoon hiding in the woodshop at school, whilst my classmates were on the sports fields.
As a young man, I was lucky enough to learn the craft of antique furniture restoration at a small school that is no longer running. Whilst on this course I decided that I would like to open a school of my own, so we moved to Scotland and the next year, the Anselm Fraser School of Antique Furniture Restoration was born, later to be renamed The Chippendale International School of Furniture.
Read MoreDespite a turbulent year, the Chippendale International School of Furniture’s class of 2020 put on a stellar display of their work at our Graduate Exhibition & Sale in October.
Our yearly show is the opportunity for graduating students of our furniture school in Scotland to show the fruits of their labour following nine intensive months on the Professional Course. This year’s show was especially significant, highlighting both our 35th year and the resilience of our students in the face of Covid-19 challenges.
Read MoreWe are hosting our annual Graduate Exhibition & Sale this October in its 35th anniversary year.
Despite the upheaval caused by Covid-19, our Graduate Exhibition & Sale will be open daily from Wednesday 14th to Saturday 17th October, showcasing the fine furniture work crafted by students on the Professional Course over the last nine months. The course provides students with all the necessary skills to set up and run their own furniture business, covering everything from design techniques to marketing strategies.
Students this year include a former commodities trader who left behind a seven-figure salary to pursue furniture making and a GP with more than 25 years’ experience in health care.
Read MoreWith the rise of campaigns like Oxfam’s Second Hand September and the popularity of Marie Kondo’s decluttering methods, more and more of us are buying less than ever before.
A 2019 study found that people who consumed less, which involves repairing instead of replacing and avoiding impulse purchases, are happier than those who engage in other ‘green’ behaviours.
Our living spaces, like our budgets, are also not getting much bigger, prompting consumers to think hard about the durability and quality of the furniture they are buying.
Read MoreNecessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
We set analytics cookies such as Google Analytics to track how people use our site so that we can understand how people use our site. While these cookies are not required for the website to function, they allow us to understand better how people use the site so we can update and improve it in future.