I try to imagine what it must be like to go to a staff training day at Walmart, and then I stop myself from going down that road. Can you call what we did today staff training? I don’t think so. We worked throughout the day truing plane soles and building boxes and drawers. If you remember I abandoned mine after my last trip, but yesterday we had a really full day of making and restoring with sessions of instruction and discussion interspersed thoughout the day. When we were done we all felt inspired to say the very least.
This is what the new hand tool workshop and teaching facility looks like today. This wek the floor gets sanded and finished. The bench tops look lovely and now there are only 128 3/4″ mortise and tenons to make and the benches will be ready for the first intake of students at the bench. With only a couple of places left in the opening class in April I am hoping you have booked your places.
Gary and I went to do some shopping on Tuesday and I have some finds that i want to tell you about in another post later on.
David Ashdown is not really new to woodworking and he has been training his children to make dovetails. Can you believe that using the methods we teach, a ten (birthday was this week) made these dovetails?!!!
Arian is an architect by craft and he also loves woodworking. We had a blast all day interchanging our thoughts and ideas. I can only imagine what goes through his mind when he is looking at furniture concepts and thinking through future possibilities as our furniture company comes together this year.
Nick built the workshop, with a little help from the team. He was the overall team leader and made the hundreds of mortise and tenon joints that hold the superstructure together. An amazing young man! These joints are a little smaller than the massive through-tenons on the cross-ties, but they were equally demanding I think.
Mark had a blast all do. The hardest thing to do is to get Mark to stop working and to stop smiling. He loves his work and it shows in the results.
And last but not least is Jacob who is a cabinet maker here in New York. We had supper together this week and we talked a lot about the hopes we have for future woodworking and woodworkers. He has a passion for fine craftwork as does everyone mentioned. I will be excited to see how all of this develops won’t you?
As for me. My investment is in the lives of others and soon the school will be fulfilling its purpose to serve as a centre for excellence. I am soooo looking forward to meeting you all there.
