BUILDING AN ELEGANT WINDSOR
This fan-back Windsor chair by Curtis Buchanan is the beauty that students build in this class. Materials are oak, maple, pine, and milk paint (20"x19"x37").
Curtis Buchanan, with Nick Cook & Peter Galbert
August 10 – 21
Participants learn how to turn a green log into an elegant fan-back Windsor chair in just two weeks. Over the first two days, Curtis guides students in splitting out oak chair combs and spindles, shaping them with drawknives on shaving horses, and steam-bending the combs. Then, master turner Nick Cook takes the reins for three days in the woodturning studio, where he teaches students to turn graceful, refined spindles at the lathe.
For week two, Curtis returns to the helm to bring the chairs to completion. First, participants learn to carve seats out of Eastern White Pine with scorps, travishers, and drawknives. Then they perform all the joinery required for assembly and Curtis shares simple methods for boring complicated angles. By the end of the course each student has assembled his or her own beautiful Windsor chair. Curtis and Nick are assisted throughout by veteran chair maker Peter Galbert of Jeffersonville, New York.
Curtis Buchanan has been making chairs full-time for more than thirty years in Jonesborough, Tennessee. He is widely regarded as one of the master makers and teachers of the traditional Windsor style and has written frequently for Fine Woodworking and other publications. Curtis is also co-founder of Greenwood, a community-based sustainable forestry initiative in Central America. His chairs are in the collection of the Tennessee State Museum and at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s historic home. For more information about Curtis, visit www.curtisbuchananchairmaker.com.
Nick Cook is a versatile turner who makes production gift items and one-of-a-kind bowls and vessels that he markets through gift shops and galleries from coast to coast. From his studio in Marietta, Georgia he also provides turned parts for local furniture makers and millwork shops. Nick has been turning wood for more than 30 years and is a founding member and former Vice President of the American Association of Woodturners. He teaches extensively at schools and symposia throughout the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.
Peter Galbert is a full time chair maker and instructor in Jeffersonville, New York. He teaches in his own workshop and at craft schools across the country, while his chairs are exhibited and collected internationally. Peter invented and produces the Galbert Caliper, a direct-reading caliper for spindle turning, and writes for American Woodturner. His work can be seen at www.petergalbertchairmaker.com.