Added Classes and Fresh Materials!!

 I am sensitive the fact that acquiring high quality green wood is one of the earliest and most daunting hurdles in getting started in green wood chairmaking. I cover many ways to work around this in my book, but there really is no substitute for the experience of working the stuff green. So I'm happy to say that I'm working with my friend, former student and chairmaker Dan Monsees to offer green splits of white oak and hard maple turning blanks for sale. I have absolutely no financial stake in this, I am just working with Dan to make sure that he gets the best material that I would want to work with and from there, I know he can offer it to you. You can see his offerings here. I hope you'll check it out.

Big Dan cheesing it up with his chair in my NY shop

The classes that I'm teaching in South Carolina, Washington and Ohio are filled up, so I decided to add a 6 student summer class in Boston at The North Bennet Street School. I like the 6 student format, it's plenty to create a great class dynamic but few enough that me and my assistant can give all the personal attention needed. It starts Monday August 17th and runs through Saturday. For information and registration details you can contact the school or click through their website. We will be building the Balloon back featured in my book and for those who prefer it, we can make a Fan Back instead. I'm very excited to have the book as a companion to teaching, I think it will add a lot to the class and certainly make it easier to build more chairs afterward.

 

It's been great getting feedback from folks reading "Chairmaker's Notebook". After some mailing glitches that kept me waiting to see the final print copy (it was torture watching others announce that they'd seen it!), I finally got my hands on it and am very happy with the results. Once again, thanks to Chris, John, Linda, Megan and all the folks behind the scenes who helped make one man's mania into an actual book!