One door closes and many more open

I think that is true of our courses. We’re quite different really and we spread the good news of real woodworking all be it on a small scale. I taught my first class in the USA back in 1989 or thereabouts. Since then my hands on courses have shaped 5,500 woodworkers and I have taught every single one of them. Hard to imagine but back then, in that first class, I never thought the outreach would be so wide. An email comes in now and again from someone I taught who forgot until they remind me that they were the one who did this or that and then I laugh and remember something coming out upside down or inside out.

Most days in the course this week I listen and watch and try to guide. Hands seem more skilled to me. Work outcome is very much improved, more accomplished, and of course with that comes a certainty, a level of confidence they never had before.  And here is my success and my reward. How do you measure these things?

What nine days does is of course amazing to everyone, but for me it’s different. I expect this improvement  from day one, even though  I have never had any contact with most of the students. Why do I have so a high a level of expectancy? Well, simply put, 95% of any and all achievement is a made-up mind. They all made their minds up before they came that they were going to achieve. That makes my work all the easier. There is a likelihood with this intake f students that 4 of them will become working craftsmen.

I am not sure if I should give his name and age publicly so I won’t. This man is 74 years old and he’s here with his young son in his 20’s. They are both pursuing the course together, travelled 4,000 miles to be here and went to a lot of expense to learn. It’s a strange thing and I may have told you this before but a man came into the workshop during a class in full progress. “Wow!” he exclaimed, “I would love to do this course. If I only it was nearer to me.” I asked where he was from and he said it was just too far. He lived 18 miles away. So, attitude is everything and for one group 4,000 miles is well worth the trip and then for another a free class in the same town is just too much. But I do understand that behavioural change can begin with an all-expenses-paid course. We have seen that happen many times and we provide that opportunity. I am glad we can afford to do this. Remember please that anyone who cannot afford a class with us here can apply by email to come. Every class we offer we take two non paying attendees if they just cannot afford it.  I have done that for twenty years now and it really helps.

Tomorrow we finish this class. I don’t know if any one class is better than another but I am grateful we can do this. The class size fluctuated because of commitments by attendees but most days we’ve had ten to eleven. I make the same projects just ahead of the students for demonstration and lecture purposes and my projects are used as examples along the way. I have also been working on other things too. I repaired a badly broken ultimatum brace and made the prototype dining chair we will be making for the next but two woodworkingmasterclasses workshop on making chairs. I have also made about fifty mortise and tenon joints in pine and oak for some of my research work.