April 2023 newsletter
Cheril Barber
Hello from a busy workshop!
We have so much going on here at the moment – out of necessity (Covid related) we had to delay the start of the 2022 Furniture Makers’ Programme for almost five months, and this now finishes on 5th May.
Reverting to its usual start date, at the beginning of April we welcomed our new intake of students for the 2023 Furniture Makers’ Programme and so there has been a crossover of brand new students with those who are just about ready to fly from our nest. For those of you who know us you can imagine the laughter, the banter and the quite frankly amazing work that is being created under the guidance of our two tutors Lou Fuller and the irrepressible Brian Reid.
What a team these two make and what a joy.
HAPE KIDDLE CARVING COURSE
We are looking forward to Hape Kiddle being back here with us in the workshop in early June, and both the Seed Pod and the Mobius courses are now fully booked up. We have just now added in an additional course where students will carve a wearable Möbius from the extremely hard, durable, and incredibly beautiful Australian desert Acacia, Gidgee.
Carving Gidgee differs considerably from carving other wood, sometimes been more akin to shaping stone.
For those of you who haven’t spent time here carving with Hape please do consider this course or the Netsuke course which still has space available. Hape’s teaching style, philosophy about craft and design (and life) is highly infectious and inspiring – don’t miss out on a great opportunity.
ANDY BUCK COURSE
Andy Buck will be here with us soon offering a great addition to our short course programme.
He will teach a five day course taking a deep, practical and resourceful dive into the design process.
This is a one-off opportunity for those of you who are keen to develop your own design style and gain confidence to design and create your own projects.
We have a couple of places left on this not to be missed course and highly encourage you to join us – full details are here.
2024 PROGRAMME
The 2024 Short Course Programme is nearly there with lots of exciting new and existing courses planned. Very soon you will be able to download and print off the timetable and plan your next trip to hang out here in the workshop with us. In the mean time check out what’s happening here for the remainder of 2023.
Applications are open for the 2024 Furniture Makers’ Programme – you are welcome to get in touch if you have any questions, would like to arrange a visit or would like to discuss your application.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
In this topsy turvy world we live in, it’s so nice when a random act of kindness and immense generosity takes place.
One of our new students, who attended the 2-week Introduction to Fine Woodworking course, was very impressed with our set-up, what we do here and the supportive and nurturing vibe of the workshop. Turns out that they are part of the progressive organisation Switch Lighting here in Nelson, who are the leading manufacturers in New Zealand of LED lighting. Switch Lighting have very generously offered to upgrade our entire workshop lighting at no cost to us and Phase 1 is done, with Phase 2 happening soon.
The difference is amazing – not only for our students and tutors, but it will also make a positive impact on our monthly power bill (which you can imagine is a little eye watering).
As a not for profit organisation, we do appreciate on these wonderful gestures of kindness that happen from time to time, so a big thank you to Switch Lighting.
As always - nice to catch up with you all!
Thanks for taking the time to read what's been and is happening here.
Kind regards from the small but MIGHTY team.