Working with Sawn Veneer
Dame Granadillo cabinet by Craig Vandall Stevens, granadillo, fiddleback maple, patinated brass (28"x13"x45"), 1999
Craig Vandall Stevens
July 12 – 16
Cutting veneer from solid timber on the bandsaw expands a woodworker’s ability to design and construct beautiful, creative furniture. Shop-sawn veneer offers freedom from the design constraints im-posed by seasonal wood movement, as well as surfaces that are thick enough to be worked with hand planes.
With Craig’s guidance, each student creates a small, veneered table top using high-quality, shop-sawn veneers. Participants learn lumber selection, bandsaw set up, sawing and edge-joining of veneers, edge banding, and glue up techniques using a vacuum press. Craig also shares information about adhesives, core materials, and working with curved forms. In addition, he covers tuning and use of handplanes and scrapers to make veneered surfaces perfect and smooth. His intent throughout is to improve participants’ design and woodworking skills.
Craig Vandall Stevens designs and builds one-of-a-kind furniture for exhibition and commission in his studio in Sunbury, Ohio. A graduate of the College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking Program, he now teaches workshops throughout North America and at the Shinrin Takumi Juku furniture making school in Takayama, Japan. Craig’s work is exhibited internationally and he has received numerous awards, including a recent Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council. Craig has been a featured craftsman on the Home & Garden Television program Modern Masters and is the author of several woodworking books. His latest publication is The Fine Art of Marquetry: Creating Images in Wood using Sawn Veneers (Schiffer Publishing, 2010).