The Centre for Fine Woodworking
New Zealand's premier furniture making, woodworking & design school
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CENTRE FOR FINE WOODWORKING NEWSLETTER – APRIL 2011
All here at the Centre for Fine Woodworking would like to extend thoughts and support to everyone down in Christchurch. We are very conscious that its a long road ahead now and if there's anything we can do to help, if anyone down there feels that getting out of Christchurch and spending a while in Nelson would be helpful, just say the word and we'll do our best to sort it.
One way we can make a very small but important contribution is by helping William Cottrell who has been asked by the Historic Places Trust to create a national list of skilled people, as no such list currently exists. Many craftsmen will need to be assembled no doubt to restore some of Christchurch's heritage buildings and this will form a national data-base for that and future projects. The NZ Historic Places Trust [Christchurch] would be interested to hear from any talented craftsmen and women with traditional skills to undertake restoration work on earthquake damaged heritage buildings. Areas of particular interest are in wood, stone, marble, slate, metalwork, textiles, glass, paint finishes and paper. Beyond that, skills in period architecture and design, engineering, photography, archaeology, restoration and conservation skills would also be of great value as would any other relevant trades.
It would be of great assistance if readers would forward this request to anyone of interest. If you or anyone you know are able to offer any of these skills then please send your details to us here at cfwoodwork@gmail.com and we will pass on a complete list to William as soon as possible.
The topical news here at the moment is that John has been asked to visit the US by a good friend Brian Hearne. This is effectively a well earned sabbatical and chance to reconnect the wires on his woodworking and teaching network after five years in the saddle at the Centre (amazing isn’t it!). The plan at the moment is for Fini and John to head away in late April and call in on their snowboard teaching (yeah, right!) sons Digby and Ralph at Lake Tahoe. They will then head to Pennsylvania and Brian and Molly at Hearne Hardwoods. Check out www.hearnehardwoods.com Woodworking heaven! On their way home they will scoot up to the College of the Redwoods to see friends and pay respects to Britte Krenov and then down to Phoenix, Arizona to clear sinuses of accumulated wood dust with old student mates from the College of the Redwoods. It is a co-incidence, and a great one, that Dave and Clare Haig will be in Maine at the Centre for Furniture Craftsmanship later during this period and plan to hook up for some fun together! We will keep you posted on John’s travels through our next couple of newsletters.
Some small but significant improvements to the way the school runs are worth a quick mention too – we are now on Facebook! and rapidly upskilling ourselves to keep this up to date and interesting to anyone out there. The other thing to mention is that we are now able to take payments by credit card – not through the website but if you contact Helen in our office she will be able to help.
Beginning Cabinet Making 1
Thorkild & Richard will be teaching the Beginning Cabinetmaking series (1, 2 and 3) during this time. It has been encouraging for us that our Beginning Cabinet Making 1 courses continue to be our most popular course, with the next course in May fully enrolled. There are places still available in the 29 August – 9th September, and we have added a further course later in the year 5th-16th December – if you come to this course you will be in Nelson when our annual exhibition opens which will all add to the experience. We are mindful that the costs involved in coming to the course and accommodation can mount up, but we have some good contacts for reasonably priced accommodation – particularly if there are two or three of you who are happy to stay together.
Beginning Cabinet Making 2
Thorkild explained earlier that twelve versions of the coopered door cabinet have now been made in Beginning Cabinetmaking 2 and everyone has had great a great time getting to grips with the mix of new skills presented in the course. Adam is planning to use his as a shaving cabinet if it hasn’t already been claimed for perfume; others have been gifted to very appreciative recipients for Christmas and birthdays!
Bending Solid Wood
David Haig’s beautifully designed steam bent stool has always been a favourite in our exhibitions and most people who see it really, really want to own one. So, if you have been thinking about this course there are a couple of places still available this year – dates are 23 May – 3 June – get in touch if you are keen. 03 5452674 or www.cfw.co.nz as usual.
2012 Full Time Furniture Maker’s Programme
We are delighted to announce the dates for next year’s full time programme,:-
Beginning Cabinet Making: 12- 23 March
Machine Maintenance & Routing Techniques: 26-30 March
Dovetail Cabinet and Carcase: 2- 27 April
Frame & Panel: 30 April - 18 May
Bending Solid Wood: 22 May - 1 June
(Two week break)
Marquetry: 18 June - 29 June
Chair Making: 2 July - 10 August
Hall Table / Desk: 13 August - 7 September
(Two week break)
Advanced Furniture Making: 24 September - 23 November
If you are interested in the full time programme, or any of the individual courses in 2012 then do get in touch for more information. 03 5452674 or www.cfw.co.nz as usual.
Computer Stuff
Pat Oughton has been hanging about again! This time though we asked him to come down especially to work through developing our computer setup; Larry has been hosting our website on his personal server until now. Pat's transferred all that stuff to a server in the office here and re-organised the office and student computers. One of our future intentions is for a class set of computers to spring from this server, allowing us to include computer aided drawing in our programme both as evening and part time courses. Thanks very much to both Larry and Pat O. for all their great works. Pat has also incidentally also solved the problem of the electronic timers for bar billiard tables - watch this space!
Exhibitions 2011/2012
The dates for the 2011 exhibition here in Nelson have been confirmed; opening on 8th December and running until mid January. This year we are going to celebrate our 5th Birthday with a different slant on the exhibition – the big plan is to exhibit here in Nelson at Refinery Artspace and then move on up to the Depot Artspace in Devonport. The big question is how do we chose which pieces to show? This is where you come into the picture.
We are asking you to submit images of furniture you have either created whilst you have been here at the workshop or that you have since created - we want the piece that you are most proud of. We will make a selection from the submissions for both of these exciting exhibitions. If you are currently working on a piece which you would like to be considered, or if this inspires you to get on with a new piece that is exactly what we are hoping and need to know asap what you are doing. All submissions should be made to cfwoodwork@gmail.com
Trade Me
Over the last few years we have collected various miscellaneous tools and stuff and it’s now time to pass it all on. We will be progressively placing it on Trade Me under the user name “finewoodworking”. Saws, planes and odds and ends should slowly appear – if you are watching regularly.
Hope your woodworking is doing you good
Cheers from everyone here at the
Centre for Fine Woodworking.
Previous Newsletters
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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