Student Blog : Mia Trew details her experiences
at the Centre for Fine Woodworking.
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CENTRE FOR FINE WOODWORKING
NEWSLETTER APRIL 2010
Hello from us all here at the Centre for Fine Woodworking. It's been some time since a missive of any sort has emerged from the Centre for Fine Woodworking, it's just that we have just been incredibly busy.
Our resident Aussie, Lachie the blog, keeper of the 'Chamfer' has gone back home and thinks we probably wouldn't be very interested in the fruit picking he's involved in at the moment while seeking to finance his next move as a furniture maker. Therefore we've asked Mia, one of our new intake of full time students to oversee the Chamfer from now on and it will soon be up and full of gossip. Keep looking at http://thechamfer.blogspot.com
So what's been keeping us busy? Well.....
2009 / 2010 EXHIBITIONS
Our annual exhibition at Refinery Artspace here in Nelson was generously sponsored by Irving Smith Jack Architects Ltd a small practice of very highly respected architects using natural and sustainable materials wherever possible, who are now seeing that trends are moving away from the very modern sterile look towards having high quality features and furniture made of timber. This seemed like a very natural and positive relationship and having Irving Smith Jack support our exhibition gave us great credibility we thank them for believing in us.
The exhibition again attracted big crowds of people, lots of interest in the school, and subsequent student enrolments. Our website has a gallery of the 2009 exhibition showing some of the outstanding pieces of furniture created by our 2009 full and part time students. If you haven't had a look yet then please do take the time, as we are very proud of the quality and craftsmanship that came from our 2009 students.
After the exhibition finished, with some serious organisation and effort, we managed to get a truck full of all the furniture plus more down to the Centre for Contemporary Art in Christchurch for a three week exhibition the first time we have ever exhibited outside of Nelson. Again, we were surprised and pleased that the gallery had nearly 8000 people come to see the exhibition furniture that is well made and designed appeals to a whole variety of people not just us woodworkers.
To exhibit outside of Nelson was a big undertaking for us, and we could not have done it without the generous financial support from our two sponsors. Our friends Paul & Ken Wickham of BBS Timbers Ltd, who have been our previous sponsors for our Nelson exhibitions supported us with this venture / adventure. At the 11th hour when yet again we had been rejected from a number of funding applications, the Nelson Economic Development Agency came to the party with a generous donation to support this exhibition as well. Thanks to both these organisations, we were able to raise our profile and draw people's attention to the high quality of work which is emerging from the school, as well as promoting the cluster of graduate Nelson based furniture makers who are now taking on all sorts of commission work.
A big thank you to all who lent us their furniture for this exhibition, resulting in a very impressive selection of work. We tried very hard to get The Press and Sunday Star Times on our side to write an article about us, sadly with absolutely no luck or even a sniff of interest from either of them. This was disappointing as the gallery were delighted with the number of visitors through to see our exhibition. There are some photos and a short article about the exhibition in the latest edition of The Shed magazine thanks to their ongoing support to us.
Through a combination of both exhibitions, and the growing number of visitors that call in and see us here, we have been pleased with the amount of pieces of work that have been sold over the summer. Adam Webb's side table which won 1st prize in the Kawerau Wood Festival was snapped up and is now residing in Taranaki;
Rod Lomas's walnut and glass table from the 2008 exhibition was sold at the COCA exhibition (see photo above by Linley Cook), Tony Clark's chair which came 3rd at Kawerau Wood Festival was sold, and a pleasing number of commissions are now underway.
We mentioned in the last newsletter that we were hoping to make some major changes to the workshop. We are delighted to have found out this week that we have been granted funds from the Canterbury Community Trust in order to carry out these upgrades which will give us better timber storage, an office and gallery space and improved workspace areas for our students as well as accommodating the graduate students who are working as emerging furniture makers here at the school. After many, many rejected funding applications, this one came as a real surprise to us and so from all of us we thank the Canterbury Community Trust for their very generous support.
Timber Porn
One of our students here for Module 1, Brian Hearne, has been spoiling us with samples of timber that he and his father sent over from their business Hearne Hardwoods in Pennsylvania, USA see www.hearnehardwoods.com Tiger Maple, Olive, Koa, Bubinga, beautiful quarter sawn Oak and others have all been making their way into student projects over the last few months. We are trying to bully him into setting up a Nelson branch of his business it's on the long term plan!
Course information
The full time course is well under way with Beginning Cabinet Making, Router Techniques and Dovetail all under the belts of our new intake of students.
Beginning Cabinet Making in May is now full, and there are some limited places left in the September course, so if you are thinking about coming along it is worthwhile getting in touch, as these courses always fill up.
The Router Techniques course which we have run for the last two years have filled up very quickly, and we know that some students were disappointed not to get in. We are going to run another two short courses later this year :-
Introduction to Router Techniques
Dates: 17 – 18 July 2010
Fees: $425, GST included (non-refundable)
Prerequisite Skills : None
This two-day workshop covers safe use of routers and selection of useful and worthwhile router bits. The focus will be on explanation and demonstration of both hand-held routing using jigs and the use of the router table. It is not required that you bring your own router but you may if you have specific questions about its adjustment and use. If you do not already own a router it might be wise to defer the selection until after this workshop.
Advanced Router Use
Dates: 28 – 29 August 2010
Fees: $450, GST included (non-refundable)
Prerequisite Skills: Introduction to Router Techniques or previous experience with the principles taught in that course.
This two-day workshop gives hands-on experience with routers and routing both hand-held and on the router table, as well as the construction of jigs. If feasible, students should bring their own routers in order to make the most of this workshop. Students should bring their own hearing protection earmuffs if they have them. We recommend Grade 5 earmuffs. If you do not own earmuffs, we will supply them for your use whilst here.
Depending on numbers and demand, the second course may alter to be a further rerun of the Introduction to Router Techniques - so if you are interested in either the introductory course or the advanced course then get in touch just so we have an idea of how things might go info@cfw.co.nz
Plane Making is also full but if there is a demand to run it again before 2011 then we can organise another weekend course but you will need to let us know if you are keen.
Later on in the year during Module 3, there will be a chance to attend some short courses that are part of the Advanced Furniture Making part of the full time course. We have organised these into the programme so that students who are interested can join the full time students and attend these short carefully structured and focussed courses:-
Advanced Hand Skills (1 Week) – 13 – 17 Sept. 2010
Cost: $800 GST inc, non refundable
Estimated material costs $100-$200 or bring your own timber.
Enjoy the opportunity to further develop your skills as we build this small project completely by hand. We will tackle advanced technical skills for example secret mitred and angled dovetails, tricky three way lap joints, coopering and curving panels. Expectations will be high this is a good opportunity to challenge yourself without being judged.
Treen (3 Weeks) – 20 September – 8 October
Cost: $2400 GST inc, non refundable
Development of small scale wooden batch production items often called Bread & Butter products. This course will focus on the importance of market research and product development to facilitate profit and ultimately the presentation of these items for sale to a market via a blog and website. This is a great opportunity to work on applied design process and investigate ways of simplifying and streamlining production.
Chest of Drawers (3 weeks) 11 October – 5 November
Cost: $2400
Estimated material costs: $300-$700 according to scale and timber selection
This fascinating piece of furniture allows students to take advantage of the repetitive nature of drawer making to gain pace and become fully capable in this process. Elegance, subtlety and the application of traditional drawer and case making techniques will be by-words here. A great design opportunity.
If you would like any further information regarding any of the above courses please don't hesitate to call us on (03) 545-2674 or email info@cfw.co.nz
Here's a bit of news from a couple of our ex students:
Email from Auckland from Trevor Watson frequent student of Centre for Fine Woodworking
Firstly our friend Trevor Watson who completed the six week chair making course last year, went home with the prototype for his set of chairs to match the beautiful dining table he had already made.
Hi John, Finished at last. I am very pleased with the results and everything went together without any disasters. I took your advice and made enough parts for a spare chair but it was not necessary. Perhaps I will use that timber to make some pens !!! I didn't vacuum the back slats, I found 8 Bessey clamps did the job. I reduced the height of four chairs by 50mm as I thought the one I made down in Nelson was a little high. I also gave the slats a little more curvature by going down the form about 30mm. Very comfortable. I am not going to be an upholster. The finish is Osmo Polyx Oil, which gives an excellent finish and easy to use, just freshen it up occasionally with Osmo Liquid Wax Cleaner.
Regards Trevor
Letter from Tokyo from Nigel McCarter student from Beginning Cabinet Making 2008
Larry wrote in the previous newsletter how Linda and I will be living in Tokyo for two years. I have joined a traditional woodworking group called Shuko-kai, dedicated to preserving and passing on traditional woodworking techniques. I've been to three meetings so far. Under the direction of woodworking master, Yukio Yamakawa, I'm learning to sharpen, tune and use a Japanese plane and shooting board. The group is twenty to thirty strong, all levels, from absolute beginners, to master craftsman. Our last session, Fujita-san demonstrated how to constructed hidden dovetail joints. It took about an hour to complete one set I think I might stick to mortise and tenon for a while yet. He is constructing a cabinet and drawers, which I think will have about 20 or so joints, then there are eight drawers, all of which will fit perfectly I am certain.
I have built a portable work bench in the kitchen of the apartment my first assignment from the Yukio is to build a Haiku frame. I'll let you know how it goes.
Nigel McCarter
Finally we have for sale a Holytek 200mm Buzzer with a 1700mm table - it's in excellent condition and has recently sharpened knives it is single phase and has a dust extraction port. $1200 get in touch if you are interested or want more information.
That's about all from us for the time being
We are always keen to hear from you comments, suggestions or ideas.
Regards from us all here have a great Easter break
John Shaw & Crew
Previous Newsletters
November 2009 Newsletter web page
September 2009 Newsletter web page
July 2009 Newsletter web page
April 2009 Newsletter web page
January 2009 Newsletter 8.6kb .html document
November 2008 Newsletter 1.4Mb .pdf document
September 2008 Newsletter 272kb .pdf document
August 2008 Newsletter 220kb .pdf document
June 2008 Newsletter 118kb .pdf document
May 2008 Newsletter 260kb .pdf document
March 2008 Newsletter 1.24Mb .pdf document
January 2008 Newsletter 93Kb .pdf document
Centre for Fine Woodworking
PO Box 1452
Nelson, New Zealand
e-mail: info@cfw.co.nz
phone: +64 3 545 2674
