TWELVE-WEEK INTENSIVE
Steam bending demonstration during the Twelve-week Intensive.
The Satterlee Building bench room.
- February 18 – May 9, 2008
- June 9 – August 29, 2008
- October 27, 2008 – January 23, 2009
- February 16 – May 8, 2009
- June 8 – August 28, 2009
Audience
Our Twelve-week Intensive is especially designed to meet the needs of aspiring professional furniture makers and amateurs on sabbatical from other professions. With two instructors available at all times and only twelve students, each participant is able to individualize the course of study to fit his or her interests and level of experience.
Curriculum
The skills available through our curriculum include:
- Design – drafting, design development through models, mock-ups, and prototypes; critiques and discussions of aesthetics.
- Drawing – Improving your ability to sketch, render objects, and think on paper.
- Lumber selection – Wood characteristics; buying lumber; selecting wood appropriate to your design.
- Joinery – choosing and making the right joint for every situation using both traditional and contemporary methods.
- Traditional hand skills – The foundation of fine furniture making, includes: sharpening; use and tuning of chisels, hand planes, saws, and scrapers; hand-cut joinery.
- Machine techniques – Use of power tools and routers for stock preparation, joinery, and forming.
- Advanced techniques – Laminate bending; steam bending; re-sawing and veneering; spindle turning; jig and fixture making; and more.
- Surface preparation and finishing – Preparing wood with cutting tools, scrapers, and abrasives; choosing the right finish for the effect you want; application of finishes.
- Shop maintenance – Selection, tuning, and maintenance of woodworking machinery.
- Professional practices – How to run a business; pricing; marketing.
The curriculum divides into three segments. For the first two weeks we go through the Basic Woodworking course, teaching the essentials of furniture making with an emphasis on hand skills. Each student designs and builds a project requiring hand-cut dovetails and mortise and tenon joinery. The second segment, weeks three through eight, focuses on solid-wood case piece construction, including door-making and drawer-making. Each participant creates a case piece with at least one door and one drawer. The third segment starts in week nine with a series of lectures and demonstrations on steam bending, laminate bending, and veneer work. Each student’s third project is to design and construct a challenging piece using one or more of these techniques.
Application Process
Participants are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. No application is required. All experience levels welcome, except for absolute beginners.