The Centre for Fine Woodworking
New Zealand's premier furniture making, woodworking & design school
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CENTRE FOR FINE WOODWORKING NEWSLETTER - MARCH 2012
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2012
It's been quite a long time since our last newsletter - nobody could accuse us of bombarding you with endless emails and campaigns to try and sell you something or grab your attention. For those of you that have been here to the school, you will know that it is not our style. However it's been too long since we have been in touch so we will promise to try harder to keep you up to date with all the happenings here at the workshop.
You may or may not realise that the Centre for Fine Woodworking is a registered charity - our aims and objectives being principally to offer the highest quality tuition in fine woodworking - we pride ourselves in being New Zealand's premier teaching environment for woodworking, furniture making and design. This would be an opportune moment to formally welcome and introduce our two new members of the Trust Board - Robin Whalley and Bob Frame. Robin brings his vast experience and background to the Trust as a chartered accountant, company director and founding trustee of a number of Trust Boards, involvement in several philanthropic and other private trusts. Robin has a commercial pilot's licence, truck driver's licence, plays the bagpipes and other instruments, and is a property developer, mountain biker and beekeeper. As you can imagine we feel incredibly lucky to have him join us.
Bob Frame first came to the workshop a number of years ago and we have got him hooked and lured him in to help us. Seriously, Bob is a Principal Scientist of Environment & Society at at Landcare Research in Lincoln, specialising in creating sustainable frameworks , strategic planning and funding, and has worked in the past for University of Otago, the British High Commission, and the British Embassy. Actually, the Bob we know is an incredibly enthusiastic and energetic woodworker, is great to have around in the workshop, and is always stopping us in our tracks with his bright ideas about how the school grow and operate - he's also great fun to have around the workshop. Along with Chris Feltham & David Thomas we have a very strong Trust Board now taking us through some exciting times ahead.
We would like to thank the Nelson Tasman Business Trust - as a charity we have been able to access their Business Mentor Programme and have had invaluable input, advice and recommendations from Graeme Thomas with the finances and Derek Drysdale with website and marketing - thanks to them both for putting us on the straight and narrow.
Full Time Furniture Maker's Course
The 2012 full time course starts on 12th March and we are very excited to have a record number of students attending this year. In the past we have been able to offer some availability on the individual courses which make up the full time course such as dovetailing, chairmaking, etc. but due to the number of full time students this year, we will not be able to accommodate part-time students in the full time course.
So to address this issue we have rearranged the workshop space in such a way that we now have two permanent designated teaching areas - one for the full time students, and the other area for short courses. This now means that we will be able to offer a wider range of short courses throughout the year, whereas previously short courses have been timetabled to fit around the full time course calendar. So now, in a reasonably informal way we have John Shaw who is responsible for the teaching of the full time course, and Thorkild Hansen who is responsible for the teaching of Beginning Cabinet Making 1 & 2 short courses and is currently planning further short courses which will be introduced towards the end of this year and beyond. You can now see the dates for the 2013 full time course on the website http://cfw.co.nz/courses11_4.html
Short Courses:
Currently the website now has dates for Beginning Cabinet Making 1 & 2, and the Full Time Furniture Maker's Course through till 2013 and dates for a scheduled Benchmaking course in June this year.
As always, we are keen to hear any suggestions or ideas for short courses. So far on offer are:
Begining Cabinet Making 1
Beginning Cabinet Making 2
Build a Cabinet Makers Bench
Acoustic Guitar Making
Beginning Cabinet Making 3 -
(This will be a two week chair making project currently in the planning stages)
Contact Helen for further details : cfwoodwork@gmail.com
See all dates now on the website for 2012 & 2013
http://cfw.co.nz/short_courses.html
ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAKING COURSE
It has been an absolute delight to watch beautiful guitars emerging over this three week course - one day to go as we speak so we can't show you any photos of completed guitars (yet).
Four students have had an intensive couple of weeks creating exquisite guitars from Indian Rosewood, Sitka Spruce, Sapele Mahogany, Ebony and Paua. We have enjoyed having young Simone here with us who has come down with special permission from her woodworking teacher at Otamatea High School near Dargaville, and it has been great to have a course with an equal number of males and females - Tim, Blandine, Freeman & Simone have worked so hard, fuelled only by the shortest of teabreaks and chocolate biscuits to give them energy to carry on until the end of the day. Rob will teach another course later in the year - 15th October - 2nd November. Please get in touch if you are interested as we already have people expressing a keen interest.
From John........
Rushing around like a blue bottomed fly for the last few weeks getting ready for the start of the full time course I have managed only momentary visits next door to the guitar making workshop. The result of this is I am always stunned each time I do get round the corner to see what is being done. Rob Bentley is stepping out into the teaching role for the first time but judging by the delighted looks on student faces he knows he’s definitely got it. He and Thorkild worked together to ensure all was prepared and with Rob driving and Thorkild hanging round to help it’s all gone brilliantly. Each day has seen new techniques explored, fascinating materials played with and all contributing to this wonderful form developing on each bench. Jim Krenov used to go on about boats being sexy but believe me I reckon guitars have got it too!
The full timers start on Monday and it’s been great to get a sense of anticipation building for everyone as the time gets closer. Some of the students have been here in Nelson for two weeks already! It’s an exciting time here at the Centre.
Helen is sitting next to me at the moment putting together this newsletter. Sighs and frustration fill the air! ‘Ah’ she murmurs as she sorts it out! One of the great things that was approved by the trust over the summer break is Helen becoming full time. What’s even more amazing is she agreed! It’s a wonderful thing!
We are currently working on adding some short videos to the website - a guided tour of the school - the workshop environment, machine room and a glimpse into the student toolbox you will have full use of whilst you are here. We are thinking about adding short demonstration clips as well - sharpening, tuning - what would you like to see?
2011 Exhibition
We celebrated our 5th birthday year with an exhibition called "been there - made that" - which was a collection of student and tutor work created in the school's first five years. We also produced a 2012 calendar which never got as far as being advertised on the website as they got snapped up very quickly. (If anyone is still keen on a calendar there are a few still left ). This year our visitor numbers to the Refinery Artspace increased by about 500 people - and it was fantastic to receive all those nice comments in the visitor's book. You can view the 2011 Gallery page now on our website with a selection of work from the exhibition.
We enjoyed looking at Sam James' version of Thorkild's wall cabinet that students produce when they attend Beginning Cabinet Making 2, as he says he envied those part time students who got the chance to make it when the full time students didn't.
Beginning Cabinet Making 2 course dates are now set for 2012 and 2013
2nd – 13th April 2012
17th – 28th September 2012
5th – 16th November 2012
8th – 19th April 2013
15th – 26th July 2013
11th – 22nd November 2013
SILAS KOPF WORKSHOP 24TH & 25TH MARCH 2012
Just letting you know there are a couple of places left for this workshop - get in touch if you are interested. We are absolutely thrilled to have had this opportunity to host one of America's best known practicioners of the art of Marquetry. Silas Kopf is currently touring Hawai & Australia and we have talked him into coming to New Zealand exclusively to teach this two day workshop here at the Centre for Fine Woodworking. This weekend workshop will focus on the techniques for making marquetry pictures with instruction in the technique of double bevel sawing. Silas will demonstrate the double bevel technique by sawing a series of exampes. Students will then have the opportunity to practice cutting using hand fretsaws with Silas's supervision. Silas will also discuss the following topics: basic inlay, parquetry, banding, Boulle technique, and using Marquetry as decoration on furniture and how it has been used historically. There will also be opportunities to ask questions about individual projects.
Silas Kopf is one of the leading practitioners of marquetry in the United States and has been making furniture for over 35 years. He apprenticed with Wendell Castle and studied traditional marquetry techniques at the Ecole Boulle in Paris. He is the author of "A Marquetry Odyssey" and examples of his work can be found at http://www.silaskopf.com
Previous Newsletters
July 2011 Newsletter web page
April 2011 Newsletter web page
January 2011 Newsletter web page
October 2010 Newsletter web page
July 2010 Newsletter web page
April 2010 Newsletter web page
November 2009 Newsletter web page
September 2009 Newsletter web page
July 2009 Newsletter web page
April 2009 Newsletter web page
January 2009 Newsletter 8.6kb .html document
November 2008 Newsletter 1.4Mb .pdf document
September 2008 Newsletter 272kb .pdf document
August 2008 Newsletter 220kb .pdf document
June 2008 Newsletter 118kb .pdf document
May 2008 Newsletter 260kb .pdf document
March 2008 Newsletter 1.24Mb .pdf document
January 2008 Newsletter 93Kb .pdf document
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