A One-Year Comprehensive Training Course In Fine Furniture
& Cabinet Making

Alongside my own work designing and making, I teach a creative workshop-based furniture and cabinet making training course for adult students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The course is comprehensive and does not require any prior experience.  It has been carefully devised to equip students with a thorough grounding in the precision use of hand-tools and machinery and in the main construction and finishing techniques of high-quality furnituremaking.

In addition to the core syllabus, it also teaches a broader set of design and business skills, so that students can go on from the course with a confidence in and an understanding of the whole practical framework in designing and making, as well as running a small craft business of their own.

With a maximum of two or three students a year, the course normally follows a 45 week full-time programme, running from September to the end of the following July.  (An intake in January is sometimes also available.)

The Workshop
Location & Facilities

The workshop is located in a small village set in beautiful Downland landscape in South-West Oxfordshire, close to the market town of Wantage.

London, Birmingham and Bristol are each an hour and a half distant; Southampton and High Wycombe about an hour; and Swindon, Newbury and Oxford half an hour.

Originally built in the 19th Century for the village carpenter and wheelwright, the workshop has since been completely refurbished, with an extension added to house a dedicated machine-shop, and an adjacent stable converted into my own design studio.

The main workshop provides a large open-plan workbench and assembly area, with the machine-room fully-equipped with modern 3-phase industrial machinery meeting all safety regulations. The advantage to students of my course - aside from its central location, low student numbers and emphasis on creative design and business skills - is that training takes place in a professional workshop.  The layout and routines, as well as my own work designing and making, informs the student´s own development, and provides a template for their own future as self-employed furnituremakers.

Tools & Techniques

The course introduces a wide range of essential skills through hands-on tuition, and develops these through project-led learning:

  ·  tuning, sharpening & use of traditional hand-tools
  ·  safe operation of woodworking machinery
  ·  hardwood selection and structural characteristics
  ·  fine joinery, frame & carcase construction
  ·  vshaping, laminating & veneering
  ·  traditional and modern finishing techniques
  ·  workshop aids and jigs
  ·  technical and creative drawing skills

Your first hardwood project is to make a small fine box with handcut dovetails etc, which prepares you for precision making, and - as well as being a beautiful object in it own right - will give you early confidence in your newfound skills and abilities.

Following on from this which you will then make your own high-quality workbench, which is approached with the same care as any piece of fine furniture, and which will stand you in good stead for your entire future furnituremaking career.

During these first few months you will achieve a high level of understanding of the fundamental forms and techniques of fine furnituremaking, and acquire a dexterity in making that will enable you to be working to the required high standards of precision and finish, slowly at first but very accurately.

Portfolio Pieces

The second part of the course extends your skills and making speed, develops your design abilities, and facilitates your transition towards professional furnituremaking.   This is achieved primarily through the design and making of two portfolio pieces.

Your first project is a freestanding cabinet of traditional solid wood carcase construction, with dovetailed drawers, frame and panel doors, veneered parts, high-quality hardware, hand-finishing, etc.

The cabinet design will be your own in response to a set outline brief (or you might have a friend or family member willing to commission a particular piece).   A significant purpose of this project is to help you learn how to explore and develop initial ideas, and then resolve a preferred final design into an excellent, beautifully-executed piece of fine furniture.

Your second project will be to make a chair, again to your own design.   As well as incorporating a choice of further techniques (shaping, laminating, upholstery, etc), this project provides an opportunity to exercise your own imagination more fully and extend your creative skills.

By this stage of the course you will not only find yourself working fluently and efficiently with hand-tools and machinery, but you will automatically be identifying the right technical solutions to a range of design challenges.

Professional Development

You should by now also be formulating a plan for the development of your career after the course, and an increasing proportion of my teaching time will be in guiding you through:

  ·  project costing and presentation work
  ·  marketing, exhibiting and client-relations
  ·  business planning, funding and time-management
  ·  setting up a workshop with equipment & machinery
  ·  other aspects of professional self-employment.

A great deal of what you will learn from me will come from informal tea-break conversation throughout the course and relating directly to my own experiences or current projects.

Each student will have a different idea of how they see themselves working after the course - most wish to set up as designers & makers, while others are happier to also factor in working as employees or subcontractors, especially in the early years of their career - and part of my role will be to help you to identify the most successful initial route to take.

Course Fees

The cost of the course is £12,500, which covers all tuition, benchspace and full use of facilities and equipment. To confirm a place for the year, I require a booking deposit of £1,500, with the balance of fees due in two parts: £6,000 on starting and £5,000 half-way through the course (You will also need about £2,000 to cover the cost of purchasing quality hand-tools and other basic equipment, and for the timber and hardware for your workbench and projects.)

Interested In The Course - Contact Me

I would be more than happy to discuss your interest and arrange for you to visit the workshop, so we can meet in person and explore your training needs and ambitions in more detail.

Please telephone 01235 765552 or use the contact form to email me.

Mary

Mary (early 40´s) first discovered an interest in making by helping her father convert his attic into usable domestic space, and eventually left her career in accountancy to become a furnituremaker - an entirely justifiable decision as her standard of work was consistently high.   She remained in my workshop after her course for a further year to work on a number of complex commissions under my supervision, before moving back to the Midlands to share workshop space with another ex-student.   (For a testimonial on Mary´s experience of my course, see above.)

Gavin

Before retraining as a furnituremaker Gavin (early 30´s) had been both a physics teacher and a research scientist - a background which gave rise to some pretty ‘spacey’ design concepts! Although I managed to talk him out of some overly-complex ideas for his cabinet project (so it could actually be made within the course timescale!), his subsequent chair design involved some ingenious and very successful curved laminating.   Gavin is now running his own small workshop, which he shares with another ex-student, and is no doubt pushing the boundaries of what is designable!

Rob

Rob (early 40´s) had a previous career in the food industry before deciding to re-train as a furnituremaker.   He spent part of his course designing and making a cabinet commission for his own client, and on leaving he set up a small - and very tidy - workshop near his home in Banbury, equiping it with used machinery.   Alongside his own commissioned work, Rob has also made high-quality pieces for me on a subcontract basis, including dining tables, chairs, sideboards, cabinets, etc.

Tim

Tim (early 50´s) was originally a professional photographer.   His aim was always to set up on his own and develop a body of work well beyond official retirement age! He is currently converting an old-peoples home in Salisbury back into a family house, and intends to use the open-plan attic as a small workshop.  Having Tim in the workshop reminded me that life, and the development of one´s life´s work, is a journey.  My recollection of Tim is of him patiently making, not phased by the challenges of furnituremaking but just quietly getting on with it.

Andy

Andy (late 20´s) came from a general building and carpentry background in London.   He significantly upgraded his accuracy and acquired a wide range of new skills on the course, which has enabled him - in addition to being able to make fine freestanding furniture - to work on high-quality construction projects incorporating fitted cabinetwork and hand-made kitchens.   I enjoyed having Andy as my first student (and my wife always remembers him by his gentleness and the wok he most kindly gave us as a wedding present!).