Philadelphia Furniture Workshop

A bit of what to expect in our upcoming marquetry class (Oct. 27-28) with Craig! https://www.philadelphiafurnitureworkshop.com//the-art-of-

Tonight was the first night of our Total Beginner 1 evening course. In the picture with this post, you see Alan demonstrating how to use a crosscut sled on the table saw. Can't take this course in the evening? Don't worry - we've got you covered. We're offering the daytime version starting Tuesday, October 31 aka Halloween . We have got a full fall schedule ahead of us. This weekend we have Basic Sharpening on Saturday (if you haven't taken this class, do it - you won't regr...et it) and Planecraft on Sunday (even if you have taken this class, you might consider it again - Craig plans on adding his own flavor to it, including a bit about Japanese planes). Then on Monday we start a brand new course for PFW - Introduction to Chip Carving. And that's just what's coming up in the next few days. Be sure to check out the calendar on our website for everything else on the schedule. See more

Today was the last day of part one of our Windsor Chair course. The course's teacher, Jim Rendi (owner of the Philadelphia Windsor Chair Shop), brought to the course an emphasis on traditional furniture-making and the use of hand tools. If you take a look at the pictures with this post, you'll see most of the tools our students were using this week, which also explains the process. The picture with the shave horse also has a bunch of froes on the floor (and a hatchet in there...) with numerous wedges too. Those were the primary tools used on Monday as we rived quarter logs into smaller pieces with a froe and wedge. This allows the wood to split along grain lines, creating a piece of wood that remains very strong because there is no short grain. In comparison, cutting the wood with a bandsaw would have resulted in cutting through some of the grain rather than splitting along it. When the pieces were small enough, they were taken to the shave horse (or put into a vice on a bench) and rounded into spindles. The tool for the roughing was a draw knife (there on the shave horse), with those spokeshaves on that stool coming into use for the refining. In the picture, you can see a spindle being held in place on the shave horse. The other picture shows a roughed-in seat. A draw knife was used there, too, for shaping edges and underside. A regular travisher was used for creating the recessed seat -- as well as that scoopy plane you see on the seat; that's actually a special travisher for Windsor chair-making. A smoothing plane is trying to sneak out of the picture -- that was used for the edges of the seat. Not pictured are the armrest and comb. For those, we got to do some steam-bending, woohee! It's been quite a week. Our students are leaving with all of the parts of their chairs in a somewhat rough state. They have work to do in their home shops to bring the parts to specific dimensions, and then they will return for a weekend in September for any tweaks that need doing -- and also the assembly.

Starting next week, we've got back to back to back courses running. The Windsor chair course taught by Jim Rendi starts on Monday 8/14 and runs through the week. The next Monday, 8/21, we start our joiner's workbench course taught by Alan which runs through that week. And then the Monday after that, 8/28, we've got a brand new course - developed, designed and taught by Craig - the Japanese Andon Lantern. That last one is four days, ending on Thursday, so you can start your Labor Day weekend partying early and make it four days of debauchery. Or maybe four days of sitting in quiet contemplation in the soothing light of your new andon lantern. You know, your choice on that. Call or email us to sign up for any or all of the courses mentioned above - or register right through our website...

We've got a course starting next week -- the Windsor Chair. You probably know we offer this course just about every August, but this time it's different because it is being taught by Jim Rendi, a local Windsor chair maker and teacher for over 20 years. I can tell you right now that the course starts next Monday, runs till Friday, and then you bounce back for a weekend in September to finish this bad boy up. Want more deets? Check out the course description on our website: http://www.philadelphiafurnitureworkshop.com//WindsorChair Hope to see you next week!

Hey, did you see we moved the joiners workbench course to the third week in August? Speaking of three weeks, that's how much time lead time we need to order the 3" butcherblock tops for that workbench you're going to build, and that means you have to register for the class by this Monday, July 31. So call us, email us, or register right through our website!

Mattie is back in the shop for the second day! Here she is, quite the lady with her nicely crossed legs, relaxing while Alan and Jim work on the base for Jim's Nakashima-inspired coffee table.

Since Alan's wife is on a little trip, he decided to bring their dog, Mattie, to the shop today. Mattie is very fond of munching on bark so she was happy with all the snacks she found on the shop floor from these live-edge slabs our students are working on in our currently running Nod to Nakashima course. Here she is on the hunt for her next delicious morsel...

Today was the first day of our Nod to Nakashima course. One student discovered a surprised ghost inside his slab of wood. Another caught a very startled, perhaps embarrassed figure inside hers...

So here is Part 2 of our getting-to-know-Craig-better posts. When we left off, Craig was done with his studies at the College of the Redwoods under James Krenov and had moved back home to Ohio to set up his own shop. Craig was busy with commissions and creating museum pieces, but that wasn’t all. Craig’s work spoke volumes (have you looked at his website yet? if not, what is stopping you? go! go now! www.craigvandallstevens.com ) and so he found himself with many opportuniti...es to teach at woodworking programs across North America -- among them the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado; the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina; back at his alma mater, the College of the Redwoods in California; and the Rosewood Studio in Ontario, Canada. Craig also lived in Maine for a couple of years and taught periodically at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport. But wait, there’s more. Do you remember in the first post where Craig found himself drawn to Japanese tools and aesthetics? Well, in 2004, Craig was invited to Japan to give a presentation on craftsmanship, and since then, he’s been back numerous times to teach workshops while at the same time absorbing more and more about Japanese woodworking techniques and Japan’s culture. In 2015 he relocated to Reading, Pennsylvania. His shop was at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, where he worked on commissions, helped improve the woodshop and taught classes, including 12-week woodworking intensives. While happy in Reading, when the opportunity to be the executive director of Philadelphia Furniture Workshop came up, Craig put his name in the hat. He saw it as an opportunity not just to teach (which he will continue to do and he loves) but also to shape the course our school takes moving forward. Oh, and he got the job! So we will end these posts as we began: welcoming Craig as our first ever executive director. Craig designed the chip carving, the andon lantern, and the kumiko courses we’ve got on the schedule for this fall, and these are the first of many new course offerings that will show up on our calendar under Craig’s leadership. Keep your eye out! Also, stop by and say hi should you find yourself wandering around Northwest Philly one day. Here are the links for the above mentioned courses. You can sign up by calling us, emailing us, or right from each course’s webpage. Introduction to Chip Carving (http://www.philadelphiafurnitureworkshop.com/ChipCarvingCou) Andon: Making a Traditional Japanese Lamp (http://www.philadelphiafurnitureworkshop.com/JapaneseAndonL) Kumiko Building Class (http://www.philadelphiafurnitureworkshop.com/Kumikomakingco)