Hands-on Workshops With Paul

The next hands-on nine-day workshop filled straightaway and the next one will begin June 19-27 2015. That's a Friday start date with no days off throughout the nine days of class.

I've taught this workshop since I first developed it in the 1990's. I cannot tell you how many lives it's changed and continuous to change. When I began my work training others and passing on skills it was from the direct relationship to my craft, an extension of my life as a furniture maker and crafting artisan and never as a teacher. I'm still a maker and always have been even though our outreach as teachers and apprenticers is bigger and more wide reaching than ever before.

The first two classes of the year filled more quickly than ever before which shows the demand for real woodworking is continuing to grow. This is no surprise to me at all, people are looking deeper into their lives in search of meaning and fulfilment. Woodworking has a way of transforming people's lives and that's my main goal. Aldo, unfortunately we've cut back a little on the number of courses we can offer this year too. Please book your bench-space early if you are planning on coming to North Wales.

Month-long Intensive this year

Many of you asked if we would be holding a month-long intensive again and we ware holding one this year in September. If you are interested in a more intense multi-project furniture making course concluding with the Craftsman-style Rocking Chair or an armed dining chair this course will prove of great value to you. In this course we will be building a large chest to my design. The chest is more cabinet making course for learning the art of raised panel door making by hand, drawer making and making large scaled dovetailed boxes as cabinets. This is a hybrid of my traditional joiner's tool chest and the cabinet maker's tool chest you may have seen around my shop or in some the other  month-long workshops held here and in the USA. I have changed the design to become a rock solid foundation course in this type of construction. The drawer making has both through and half lap dovetails and sliding dovetailed dividers too. Quite an interesting project throughout.

The coffee table is a trestle-type table made from solid oak. It has a dovetailed apron, my design and very unusual, through tenons and a series of blind tenons to create the pedestal end frames. The techniques used to build this table are transferable to full sized dining tables of the same or similar design.

To ensure all students are similarly skilled and prepared, students must have attended our foundational course or a preparation five-day course planned a few days before the month-long.

Places for this class are limited to eight students only. Please contact the school as early as possible to avoid disappointment and also for additional details if this course is of interest to you. I will gladly answer any questions you might have.