Courses for everyone
A week-long woodworking course doesn’t seem long enough to learn very much.
woodwork courses
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 …
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 …
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 …
Form and function
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 …
Careers in sawdust
Woodworking is a passion that many people have, but don’t immediately pursue as a career. Many of our students are people who have made the decision to leave their industry mid-career. They’ve taken the conventional route and gone from school to university and then into a humdrum world of work. Then, after years doing jobs …