woodworking Archives - Chippendale School of Furniture

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.

Changing attitudes the Joshua way

One of the great frustrations shared by all furniture design schools is that the option of fine furniture making is not a career option that schools tend to recommend to their pupils.

That’s because it’s a career they don’t know much about because – and maybe all furniture schools are at fault here – we haven’t shouted about it enough.

It’s a frustration that we’re determined to do something about, and are now actively seeking to better engage with government in Scotland and London – to try and change perceptions and the careers advice given to young people.

Which is why it’s particularly nice to welcome Joshua Godbert from Hertfordshire, a young student who has come to us straight from school.

He didn’t much fancy going onto college or university, but had always been creative and practical – studying CDT at both GCSE and A level.

However, it wasn’t until the school did some marketing to careers guidance teachers throughout the UK, that his school suggested fine furniture design and making as a career option.

That led Joshua to enrol in a short course at the Chippendale school, which confirmed that woodworking was something that he’d like to do.

His longer-term ambition is to return to Hertfordshire and to stay in woodworking.

Chippendale student chose furniture making course to escape the office

A blog by Matthew Meyerhoff, a student at the Chippendale International School of Furniture

Matthew's throne against a Scottish spring sky

Born in Scotland, then brought up in Canada before moving to Dubai, Matthew Meyerhoff previously worked as a simulator pilot in Dubai for Serco. The work may sound exciting but it involved sitting down at a computer all day.

Matthew says that he chose to learn furniture making and woodworking because he doesn’t want to work in an office again:

“I’ve always been interested in building things, so I started looking for somewhere to learn the tricks of the trade. The other furniture making courses that I considered were 3 years long and I felt that was too slow to be enough of a challenge. The main attractions of The Chippendale School of Furniture to me were being able to do an intensive 30 week course and the large amount of practical bench time.

“I’ve found the furniture school amazing and have really enjoyed the work so far. A colossal amount of information is fired at us every day, but, if you happen to miss something, you can always go to the tutors for help.

“No-one here is taking the woodworking course lightly, everyone‘s here for a reason. The students are an eclectic bunch and, because of that, we have access to over twenty different styles, tastes, and opinions. You can feel the buzz when you come into the workshop in the morning; it’s a hive of activity.

“The external visits are great. Gosford House was above and beyond anything. At the Burrell Collection, we went down into the basement where we saw some phenomenal pieces of furniture. I’d have liked to spend all day down there!

Matthew's veneered corner table with an inverted arch.

“I’ve finished both term’s woodwork projects on time (thankfully!). The first one was a throne made of sweet chestnut. My second piece was a veneered corner table with an inverted arch as the body.

“I’m still developing my plans for the future. I’d like to have my own business as a furniture maker, and, because I enjoy building, may buy up and renovate old properties. I‘m looking forward to those challenges!”

I am not a Cabinet Maker

Being a member of the Chippendale administrative team, it may surprise you to discover that despite working at one of the world’s most prestigious cabinet making schools, I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to woodworking. Read this story about the construction of a chicken hut for proof that Anselm needs to give me some free tuition!

[This is an archived post – the images are no longer available]

Go West!

I have been promising for ages to help a friend of mine build a chicken hut so that he can get round to the important business of keeping chickens. He lives many miles from me, up on Ben Lomond, but last weekend I finally bit the bullet and drove across the country to see him.

A Bad Woodworker Blames his Wood

I arrived expecting the unexpected, but was nevertheless horrified to discover that our building materials consisted of a shambolic array of broken palates, second-hand fencing posts and scavenged fire doors. From the outset it was clear to me that we were going to make amateurs DIYers look like master cabinet makers. This was further confirmed to me when my friend told me that his primary objective was to build a drawbridge into the front of the hut.

Taking the Plunge- Step 1

And so with more enthusiasm than talent, we took our first tentative steps. We first built a platform about 2 foot off the ground.

Step 2

We then built a little nesting box onto the back of the platform.

Step 3

By this time we had used up most of the half-decent wood but failed to see why this might be an issue. Up went the walls, one of which was an ancient, disused fire door. (We were very pleased with this because it made us happy to think that the chooks would have a nice view).

Step 4

Holes were starting to appear and so, unfortunately, were the midges. Two of us set about plugging the gaps while the other two kept on with the freestyle design-engineering.

Step 5- Abandon Ship

Finally, driven half-mad by the midges and all the self-created troubleshooting we were involved in, we abandoned the project for the pub, deciding that our host could finish the damned thing himself.

The final day’s work

A near perfect chicken hut made out of scrounged materials.

Except from the front which is an ungodly shambles, but thankfully not my problem.

In Conclusion…

I would totally recommend doing something like this, especially as a chicken hut can cost up to £1000. It is a really fun and worthwhile project to undertake, although probably only advisable is you want to keep chickens.

Hopefully I can offer you 3 small pieces of advice that might help prevent you from making the same mistakes we did (though I doubt any readers would be as foolishly unprepared as us):

1. Create a design before you begin. Don’t just make it up as you go along.

2. Get hold of some decent timber. You can pick up off-cuts from a local sawmill at firewood prices. They won’t be perfect but they’ll be a darn sight easier to work with than rotting palates.

woodworking