woodworking courses Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Chippendale School of Furniture

Gordon’s Twin Tree

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 need.

Compare that to a four-year university course, with all the student debt that involves.

One successful student, who demonstrated talent in spades, was Gordon Young from Edinburgh.

Gordon began on the ‘conventional’ route, earning a Masters degree in civil engineering from Heriot-Watt University.

Design

It’s a qualification that has some relevance to fine furniture making because it does involve an understanding of how to design things.

Other students often don’t have design skills when they come to us, which is why it’s the first thing we teach our students.

After all, if you can’t visualise a design in 3D you can’t easily make fine furniture.

Not only that, but we also bring in Isa Dorster who teaches at the lycée des métiers d’art georges guynemer near Montpellier.

She is a renowned expert in the subtle art of teaching 3D visualisation. Isa augments our own tutors who can also teach computer aided design.

Gordon therefore had a head start on some of our students, design-wise. But he’s also someone who has always been a natural at making things.

He proved that with his beautiful and functional desk in Oak and flamed Beech.

It was sinuous and tactile but, a cardinal element for every piece of furniture, utterly practical.

Its design was made special by Gordon fashioning the two contrasting woods to converge on the top.

He joined them together with a seam of macassar ebony veneer, with the seam then falling down the side of the desk.

Gilding

Gordon also demonstrated a real talent for gilding on the course, particularly his parquetry chess board framed in oak.

Gordon gilded his chess board frame with copper, then treated it with alcohol to create an aged effect.

This was then sprayed with copper nitrate acid to turn Verdigris, which describes the resulting green pigment.

Gordon is setting up Twin Tree Design, and intends to pursue a career in general bespoke fine furniture.

We’re delighted that he has chosen to stay on at the Chippendale school and work from our on-campus incubation space, Myreside Studios.

This allows our professional course graduates to immediately get started in their new careers. Importantly, they still have access to the school’s equipment, machinery and tutor support.

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 a dollop of creativity.

That’s what Matthew McGlone achieved with his Elm and stained Oak side table.

Matthew, originally from Manchester but long-time resident of Scotland, completed it after “three weeks of manic work.”

Professional course

In the first part of our professional course we teach students how to make basic things like doors and table legs and the jointing techniques to hold everything together.

In other words, our students learn how things should be made.

Later in the course, once our students have gained proficiency and confidence, they can then decide if the rule book can be thrown out the window.

That’s the part of the course when a little bit of magic can happen. The latter part of the course is when our students have the skills and confidence to unleash their imaginations.

Instead of his side table having “proper” doors, Matthew incorporated sinuous and dramatic gaps into his design.

In an otherwise functional piece, it lends originality – and buyers of fine furniture appreciate originality.

Form and function

But that balance of form and function is important, because any piece of furniture must perform the tasks it is designed for.

If it doesn’t – for example, if a cupboard is difficult to access or a chair is uncomfortable – then that balance is disrupted.

But, as far as Matthew was concerned, who says that side table doors should be solid? And his pieces do exactly what they were designed for.

It was a bold and imaginative design approach which we applaud. Matthew also incorporated those dramatic gaps in an earlier table.

That confidence in his trade possibly reflects his long-term fascination with wood.

In his childhood, he spent hours bush-crafting in woods, fashioning spoons from small pieces of wood.

Myreside Studios

But he’s also a wordsmith, with a degree in English Literature and a Masters in Creative Writing.

The word’s out that he’s setting up his business, Wild Wood Furniture, from incubation space at the school.

These workshop spaces, Myreside Studios, allow graduates to start up for themselves, with full access to the school’s equipment and machinery.

It’s all part of the holistic approach we take at the Chippendale school – giving an all-round professional course, but with real support after graduation.

The good news is that Matthew has already won commissions and is hard at work!

Chippendale graduate honoured

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 Walnut veneers (Bespoke Award).

Organised by The Furniture Makers’ Company, Alex’s pieces will be exhibited at the Young Furniture Makers exhibition in October in the City of London.

Creative designers

The event showcases the very best furniture and furnishing design talent. It offers the industry the opportunity to connect with young, creative designers.

The Young Furniture Makers Awards are the student equivalent of the Company’s Guild Marks. They recognise excellence in the fields of bespoke, design and innovation.

24-year-old Alex, from Brisbane, is currently launching his business in the UK called Alexander Stanton Fine Furniture & Design.

He personifies the fact that you don’t have to have woodworking experience to come to the Chippendale school.

Many of our students come to us as novices, having never worked with wood before.

That’s not a problem because our 30-week professional course is designed to instil in everyone the confidence and skills to practice as a fine furniture maker.

It’s a course that has been fine-tuned over thirty years. It has also seen the Chippendale school become one of the most prestigious furniture schools in the world.

Alex did have the advantage of having had three years of experience fitting timber floors and staircases.

Visit Scotland

He’s also had a long interest in designing furniture and had made simple pieces such as tables.

Before making a final decision to come to the Chippendale school, Alex came to visit a few months before the first term began.

We always welcome visitors and are delighted to show people around our workshops.

That also includes the merely curious because the school is a 3* visitor attraction with Visit Scotland.

If you’d like to visit, you can arrange a visit here, or simply contact us here.

His first project was his shortlisted hallway table and, pictured above, is Alex’s design – which he then made as a scale model.

Design skill is the first thing that we teach our professional course students. Simply, if you can’t visualise your designs, you will struggle to make anything.

But learning that skill is made easy at the school. We have expert tutors and we bring in a renowned expert from France.

Console table

Alex’s finished Ash console table had beautiful decorative flourishes. For its legs, Alex moulded laminated supports that were a design echo of Gothic cathedral architecture.

He also incorporated African Ebony veneers into the leg supports, and carried that colour contrast through to the Douglas fir drawer fronts.

He used a burning technique, called Shou Sugi Ban, which originated in 18th century Japan.

It was initially used to preserve wood. Now, it’s more commonly used to bring different colours and textures into a piece of furniture.

Alex also made a small and delicate display cabinet in Oak and spalted Beech and a steam-bent coffee table in Olive Ash and spalted Beech.

His last piece, for which he has been shortlisted, was a fluted sideboard, pictured above, in rippled Rosewood with Walnut veneers.

Alex proved himself a gifted woodworker over his year with us. We’re delighted that he has been recognised so early in his career.

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 that haven’t been fulfilling, they finally decide to follow their dreams.

But we’re always happy to take students on our professional course straight from school.

So, if you’re uncertain about moving onto higher education, why not consider a career in fine furniture and design?

Our 2019/20 course starts in October and we still have a couple of places remaining.

Our nine-month course is designed to turn novice woodworkers into craftsmen and women.

And we’re delighted that so many women are now enrolling on our one-week introductory course, one-month intermediate course and our flagship professional course.

Student of Year

Indeed, in the last four years, two female students have won our Student of the Year award.

Most of the school leavers that we take in are from the UK, but not this year.

Julius Schmalbach, from Hamburg in Germany, came to us with a little woodworking experience, but no formal training.

But he did have a small workshop at home, and taught himself to make simple pieces such as a table and bedside cabinet.

His first piece with us was a beautifully-designed ash chair with a woven cane back.

It had fine proportions and was exceptionally well crafted, with steam bent and laminated legs.

Underlining his professionalism, the chair was entirely his own design, which he fine-tuned from a mock-up that took four weeks to make.

It’s the first skill that students learn at the Chippendale school, because without being able to visualise your design in 3D, you can’t accurately construct your design.

However, we have the tutorial expertise to ensure that all our students easily master the dark arts of design and visualisation.

All angles

We then encourage students to make a scale model of their proposed piece.

That helps them understand what it will look like from all angles and how it will be joined together.

Most students wouldn’t have started with so ambitious a project, and Julius’ painstaking approach to his design gave him the necessary confidence.

Confidence is also something that we instil at the Chippendale school and, as the course progresses, everyone’s confidence increases.

That was certainly true of Julius because, having taken time and trouble over his chair, he then made a small bench made out of oak, which took him four days!

His signature piece was a lovely cherry veneered writing escritoire, with two drawers held together with hand-cut dovetails.

It was another ambitious project, particularly to veneer around corners, and to make its cherry octagonal tapered legs.

It’s a lovely and practical piece of furniture, with a high level of attention to detail. For example, the handles are also made from well-turned pieces of cherry.

Not content with that, he also completed a walnut medicine cabinet, with star-shaped mirror cut-outs.

The pieces of mirror are gilded in white gold to lend it a magical quality and, inside, it has two drawers and two shelves.

Julius shows that woodworking skill can be learned at any age.

So, if you think a career in furniture design and sawdust might be for you, don’t delay…contact us today!

Cocktails and 007

Heather Jones from Los Angeles came on our professional course with some furniture design experience, but no woodworking skills.

She was previously an art director and graphic designer, and one of her hobbies was designing furniture.

She decided that it was time to acquire the necessary skills to turn her visual designs into completed realities.

Heather’s past career, which included work as a set and production designer in Hollywood, had given her real expertise in visual design.

That’s the first thing that all our professional course students learn because you can’t make fine furniture without a clear design and, therefore, precise dimensions.

In that respect, Heather had a head start on some of our other students.

Her signature piece was her Gertrude’s Cabinet of Cocktail Curiosities. It demonstrated that, over the year, she certainly did add woodworking skills to design expertise.

It was a monumental piece of furniture made from stained sycamore, with hand-turned legs and carved doors.

Gin

Inside, it had two drawers ideal, so Heather said, “for love poems scribbled on napkins while sipping (too much) gin.”

The playful nature of her pieces is also evident in her Double “Oh James Darling, Get me a Cocktail” Table.

It was a lovely piece of work, with a Sapele veneer radial table top, fluted base and brass accent.

But it was her marketing acumen that earned Heather this year’s Marketing Award.

It may seem strange for a furniture school to have an annual marketing award, but it’s something we believe passionately in.

Our professional course teaches the basics of business planning, website design and marketing. We also expect students to design and make their own marketing materials.

That holistic approach to the Chippendale’s course gives our graduates the best-possible start to their new careers.

Heather’s beautifully-designed brochure for her cabinet and table was fun, creative and eye-catching.

In other words, it demonstrated clearly that she understood the importance of marketing to business success.

Heather will be returning to the USA to set up Heather Jones Bespoke Furniture.

Desk, chair and triangles

The Chippendale school welcomes students of all ages and backgrounds on our introductory, intermediate and professional courses.

But Giuseppe Merlino from near Milan is the first post-doctoral researcher in microbiology that we’ve ever had.

It underlines how fine furniture design and making can be a second career for anybody at any age.

For Giuseppe, woodworking began as a hobby while he was researching environmental microbes in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

But he’d also always been interested in woodworking, seeing wood as the ultimate natural and most durable of materials.

Giuseppe came to us for a visit last summer. We also put him in touch with an Italian student, Gianluca Caregnato, who studied with us during 2017/18.

His first piece on the 2018/19 course was a Bauhaus-inspired desk that beautifully combined form and function.

Sinuous curves

His writing desk, in European oak, was linear and elegant, and incorporated architectural flourishes throughout.

Most clearly, the desk top was glass, allowing every detail of its sinuous curves to be easily seen.

It therefore celebrates all aspects of the design and construction process. A Bauhaus touch is that everything is on display.

Giuseppe’s second piece was a floating-top coffee table in American oak.

The table top was veneered in triangles using different rosewood types, with the inside of each triangle veneered with heartwood – a darker colour hewn from wood where sap doesn’t flow.

The lighter shade of rosewood making up the triangles was cut from sapwood – the part of the tree where sap does flow.

The wood has a strong, sweet smell which can last for many years, and which explains the name rosewood.

Another signature piece was a chair made from European oak, held together with pegs fumed with ammonia, and incorporating steam-bent elements.

Schopenhauer

He named it after Arthur Schopenhauer, the 19th century German philosopher.

Schopenhauer is often described as the artist’s philosopher because of the inspiration his aesthetics have given to artists of all kinds.

We’re delighted that Giuseppe is staying on at the school and setting up his business, Giuseppe Merlino Furniture. He’ll now be working on-campus from our incubation spaces, Myreside Studios.

These spaces allow Chippendale graduates to create their own businesses without the hassle and expense of finding and equipping their own workshops.

Graduates in our Myreside Studios have access to all our equipment and machinery. They also have access to tutor support.

It’s a great way for our alumni to start off their new ventures, and we wish Giuseppe every success with his.