Next Steps in Furniture Making

Tim Rousseau

July 16-27

Austerity Table with chair by Tim Rousseau, black ash and walnut, 2005

This course is an excellent follow up for those who have taken Basic Woodworking. Each student designs and builds a small, simple, case piece or table with a single drawer in order to consolidate previously learned skills and develop new ones.

Through lecture and demonstration, Tim reviews the essentials of hand-cut joinery and the use of hand tools such as planes and scrapers for surface preparation. In addition, he introduces standard machine-joinery techniques that apply to casework and tables. These include splined miter joints, box joints, mortise and tenons, and inserted tenons made variously with the router, table saw, band saw, and Festool Domino. Finally, Tim teaches participants how to construct and fit traditional, hand-dovetailed, inset drawers for their projects.

Tim Rousseau divides his time between building furniture on commission in Appleton, Maine and teaching at the Center. He took the Center’s Twelve-week Intensive in 1998 and then spent two years working in a multifaceted group shop in Hoboken, New Jersey before returning to Maine to set up his own business. In 2002 and 2003 he served as the Center’s Resident Instructor, running the Workshop Program. Since then, he has been a lead instructor for the Twelve-week Intensive and has taught the chair project for the Comprehensive. His furniture is shown throughout the Northeast, and his 13-part video series, “Making a Small Cabinet,” is featured on www.finewoodworking.com. His website is www.timothyrousseau.com.

Open to intermediate woodworkers, including anyone who has taken Basic Woodworking.

Tuition: $1,250

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