Green Wood Intensive - Professional Development Course for Woodworkers - Month Long Course in South Devon

Description

Professional development course for woodworkers. The course will start with a traditional “slab and stick” construction - a stool incorporating a steam bent component. This will teach you the basics of all green wood construction - cleaving, axe work and shaving wood with a drawknife. It will also teach you how to get the right angles for your legs, how to carve a seat, and how to add stretchers and rails. Following that there will be a 6 day “post and rung” chair course. This is a bit of a green wood bootcamp! By the end of the 6 days you will really know how to use a froe, axe and drawknife effectively and efficiently. On day 6 you will learn simple techniques to weave a seat. Then you will learn to sharpen, and care for your tools, (with a focus on green woodworking tools). We teach simple techniques so you can master ways to quickly get a razor edge on all your tools, making your working experience a joy. By this point we will have had time to discuss and develop a personal project. We will explore an intuitive approach to design appropriate to working with an irregular material like green wood. This project can be pretty much anything - shelves, cabinets, chairs, tables. Anything as long as it has an element of green wood. This will then be followed by a one day intensive on steam bending, exploring the versatility, economy, and elegance of incorporating steam bent components. There are then two options - either to continue your personal project (if it is a major undertaking), or to design and build a chair or bench using the skills you have learnt. By the end of the month you will have covered all the essential skills of green wood furniture making. The green wood intensive will take part from the 30th of April, to the 30th of May, 2025. This will be a thorough, creative exploration of the possibilities of green woodwork, and of combining green wood with fine furniture techniques, and contemporary materials. It will be held at the beautiful Devon Green Wood Centre, a stone's throw from the stunning area of outstanding natural beauty which is the South Hams Coastline. The “Intensive” is basically a combination of courses that have been developing over the past 12 years: the Intro Plus Steam, Green Wood Chair Making; Tool Sharpening and Maintenance; Introduction to Steam Bending and Creative Seating. Interspersed between these courses will be individual project time, to be used how you want - whether it be a personal project, experimentation with the techniques you are learning, machining, jig-making, or whatever makes sense to you. The aim is to provide you with a suite of skills and knowledge that would allow you to turn green woodworking into a meaningful element of your career. There will be plenty of time to talk about the practicalities of setting up your own green woodworking business. This course is not really suitable for complete beginners. Please make contact to discuss if you are not sure if you have enough experience to tackle this month-long course. For people wishing to use power tools and machines in their work, there is also the opportunity to be trained on using the powered equipment at the Devon Green Wood Centre. This is in line with the vision of using green woodworking in conjunction with modern methods of construction, and other materials in order to create a new kind of furniture with a warm organic feel, but entirely practical and suited to contemporary environments.

Cancellation policy

Medium - Cancellation and a full refund can be obtained up to 4 weeks before the course starts

Maker

Peter Lanyon Furniture

with Craft Courses since 2013

Message the tutor

Peter Lanyon trained as a furniture maker at Rycotewood College in 1995, before going on to complete an MA with distinction in Furniture Design and Technology. He is a trained secondary school teacher, and has been teaching in many different guises for 2 decades. His current furniture practice sees him combining green woodworking techniques with his interest in design, and his skills in fine furniture making. He enjoys passing on these skills and passions through his courses.