Happy Christmas!
Thank you so much for your response to our Autumn Newsletter. We’ve received a lot of interest in our courses and lots of bookings, particularly for the side chair class we focused on. However, the surprise success of our planned workshops has been the round stool. We only arranged two courses for it next year but due to demand we’re going to change one of the simple stool classes into a round stool course and add another date. It’s the focus of this edition’s Design Focus.
Bookings
We’re now using craftcourses.com for all of our bookings. This simplifies the whole process for you and us. It also means that you can give craftcourse.com vouchers as presents and use them for our courses.
If you book a course through our website you will be automatically transferred to craftcourses.com and you can then book a specific date.
Please don’t let that stop you getting in touch with us directly. If you don’t do online bookings give us a ring; we’re always happy to answer questions by email or phone (07778 397328).
In the workshop
In the run up to our courses in March we’re building lots of new jigs
Most of our courses need some kind of jig, either to hold timber or to shape it. Over the years we’ve simplified our building processes to use jigs that students can make at home without lots of machines.
The simplest little jigs we use are the joiner’s blocks. Just a scrap of ash with two forty five degree saw cuts. But they’re essential in every one of our courses. You can make them grip better with a piece of sandpaper glued to the bottom and stop them bruising the timber with a bit of leather in the jaws. Make at least two at a time and make sure they’re exactly the same size so that your workpiece rests parallel to the bench top.
Design focus
In each newsletter we take a look in detail at each of the course chairs and stools we offer. These should give you a better understanding of how we build each piece on a course. In the autumn newsletter we looked at the side chair. This time let’s have a look at the round stool.
The round stool class takes three days.
Day 1: Unlike most of our other courses this stool requires some ‘flat work’; the top of the chair is made from four identical pieces that are glued up and shaped to a circle. Our first task is to cut the half lap joints for the frame at the top of the stool. We use a little magnetic jig to make this easier so don’t worry if you haven’t done this kind of thing before. We aim to have the frame glued up by lunchtime so that we can start rounding the legs.
These stools have long legs so there’s a bit of work to be done. You start with square section stock and plane the timber eight sided and then shave and scrape it round. This means that you’ll learn techniques that don’t require you to buy thousands of pounds of lathe and turning tools when you go home and want to build another chair!
Day 2: A busy day of rounding all the remaining legs and rungs. You’ll use a dowel maker and then put the tenons on with a tenon former. Once all of the parts are finished you drill the tenon holes in the top and then glue up the stool, admire your work and go home for the day.
Day 3: Seat weaving. This is the only course on which we teach the envelope weave, a key characteristic of this pretty little stool. There’s more to go wrong with this weave so we leave plenty of time so that if you make a mistake you can start again. It’s a lovely, gentle introduction to a traditional pattern that you can then use on other chairs. If you’re quick or you’ve done it before you might have this finished by lunchtime. But don’t worry; you’ve got all day.
Let them eat cake!
The question we get asked the most is “What’s for lunch?” Closely followed by “What’s for tea?”
When you come on a course with us all refreshments including elevenses, lunch and afternoon tea & cake are provided. Bryony, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu as a patisserie chef, provides a wonderful selection of treats to keep you going.
As always, if you’re interested in coming on a course please give us a ring (07778 397328) or drop us an email.
Enjoy the autumn,
StJohn & Bryony
The Quiet Workshop 