woodworking schools - Chippendale School of Furniture

Ballet in wood

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

Making success happen

Anselm Fraser, principal, writing in The Woodworker magazine

Courses for everyone

A week-long woodworking course doesn’t seem long enough to learn very much.

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.

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.