CLASSES
Making Space: Intro to Woodworking for Conservators
This two-week woodworking program will provide emerging conservators who identify as historically marginalized from the fields of woodworking and/or art conservation with the knowledge and confidence to apply woodworking skills to augment conservation benchwork applications across a variety of specialties. Historically marginalized identities may include but are not limited to, those who identify as BIPOC, gender-nonconforming, and/or female.
Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Teaching the Teachers: 2-Slat Post & Rung Side Chair With Jeff Lefkowitz
Notification of award: May 16, 2024
Learn the essential processes of building a post & rung chair while learning how to instruct a chair class. Utilizing machines and hand tools, we’ll use the 2-Slat Post & Rung Side Chair to teach future teachers.
Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Stick Chair with Chris Schwarz at Lost Art Press
Scholarship and Application Details are Forthcoming
Build a comb-back stick chair – one of the most popular forms. The construction process is a combination of heavy hand-tool use with some assistance from the bandsaw. The emphasis of this class is on building beautiful chairs with few tools – and even fewer jigs.
Who should apply: All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking.
Contemporary Side Chair With Aspen Golann at FireWeed
Class Details and Scholarship Information is Forthcoming
Balloon Back or Fan Back Side Chair with Luke Barnett at Sam Beauford
2 Full Scholarships (covers Tuition and Housing). This application is not yet available.
Build a Windsor Balloon Back or Fan Back Side Chair with Chairmaker Luke A. Barnett. Students will join us for a 5-day class. Students can choose to build either a balloon back or a fan back side chair. You will learn both techniques in class. We will start with logs on Monday morning and finish with a balloon back OR fan back side chair on Friday.
Who should apply: All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking. Additionally, we encourage individuals who would not normally have an opportunity like this to apply.
Dutch Tool Chest with Megan Fitzpatrick at Lost Art Press
6 Full Scholarships (covers tuition and materials). This application is not yet available.
Build a handsome tool chest as a great three-day introduction to several bedrock hand-tool joinery techniques: dovetails, dados, and rabbets. Plus, learn how to cut a fingernail molding, raise a pane, and use cut nails as you explore rules for carcass construction. By the end of Day 3, you'll be able to pop all your tools in your new chest (which fits in the back of almost any car) for your drive home.
Who should apply: All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking. Beginners are welcome.
Original Chair Building With George Sawyer
This one-week intensive will provide a safe, supportive, and creative space for experienced chairmakers to explore the realities of bringing a new chair concept to life. Students will come to the class prepared with sketches, models, or a prototype and we will spend the week working with traditional tools and techniques to figure out how to build their designs. Our goal is for students to leave the class feeling well prepared to take a new design from concept to completion.
Who should apply: All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking and should be experienced chairmakers.
Design and Build a Side Chair
Starting from a log, students learn to split, soak, and shape their way to an elegant, custom chair. This course provides a balanced approach to design & build skills - covering traditional chairmaking skills while also introducing students to the design process.
Applications for this Opportunity have Closed.
Intro to Chairmaking: Making a Milking Stool With Charles Thompson
Two Full Scholarships including tuition.
Application Deadline: Closed.
Notification of award: Oct. 5, 2023
Anyone looking for a way into making chairs or other staked furniture pieces can find one here: we'll make a stout three-legged stool using hand tools and techniques common in traditional chairmaking.
Who should apply: No prior experience needed. All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking.
Balloon Back Side Chair with George Sawyer
4 full scholarships (covers housing, tuition, and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Participants will learn the fundamentals of green woodworking and build their own balloon back Windsor chair using Dave Sawyer’s original chair design. In each class, attendees learn: traditional green woodworking techniques, splitting out logs and spindle shaving, seat carving with hand tools, steam bending, leg turning
Who should apply: All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking and be actively pursuing a career in furniture making.
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Ladderback Chair wIth Travis CUrtis
Work with Travis Curtis to learn how to build a Jennie chair — a form developed by Jennie Alexander from classic post-and-rung ladderbacks, and made famous in her book "Make a Chair from a Tree."
Who should apply: No prior experience needed. All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking.
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Build a Stick Chair With Christopher Schwarz
6 full scholarships (includes tuition and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Chris Schwarz leads an introduction to building stick chairs — a vernacular form of furniture that has been around for centuries, built with available materials and small tool set.
Who should apply: We have 2 spots for students who have some chair making experience and want to start learning to teach others, and 4 spots for students with little-to-no chair experience but who have some sort of active teaching practice (elementary school math, educational writing, podcasting, etc). All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
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Ladderback Chair with Reid Gamble
Two full scholarship seats are available (includes housing, food, tuition and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Construct a red oak ladderback chair frame with Reid Gamble! The class will focus on post-and-rung construction and wet and dry mortise and tenon joinery. All parts will be shaped on the shaving horse.
Who should apply: No prior woodworking experience needed. All applicants must identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking and have a personal, professional, craft-based or biographical connection to Appalachia.
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Paid Assistantship: Ladderback Chair With Reid Gamble
This assistantship position includes a $300 stipend, travel stipend, housing, meals, and materials. Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
This paid assistant will work with Reid Gamble to lead students in the construction of a red oak ladderback chair frame, while also building their own chair. The class will focus on post-and-rung construction and wet and dry mortise and tenon joinery. All parts will be shaped on the shaving horse.
Who should apply: While you need not be an expert chairmaker, all applicants must be prepared to take on the responsibilities of an assistantship and identify as historically excluded or under-represented in the field of woodworking. This assistant should also have a personal, professional, craft-based or biographical connection to Appalachia.
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Collaborative Design Workshop with Peter Galbert
Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
This class is a continuation of a workshop Peter Galbert taught to a small group of professional woodworkers in 2022. The original class will return and we are looking for two new chairmakers to join the crew in the process of designing a Windsor chair from scratch.
Who should apply: Applicants needn’t be expert chair makers or even comfortable with the process of designing and building from scratch, but this class will skim over some of the basics of wood technology and safe machine use and so as to jump full force into designing and building. As such, this class is most appropriate for students who have experience woodworking, have likely already built a chair, and are now looking to learn how to design their own pieces. All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
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GREENWOOD SPOON CARVING W/ CHARLES THOMPSON
1 full scholarship (includes tuition and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Learn the traditional art of green woodworking from Charles Thompson. We’ll use an axe and a knife to turn a freshly harvested branch to create a one-of-a-kind spoon.
Who should apply: No woodworking experience required! All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
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Intro to Chairmaking: Make a Milking Stool with CHarles Thompson
1 full scholarship (covers tuition and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Charles Thompson will lead students in making a stout three-legged stool from pine and oak using hand tools and techniques common in traditional chairmaking.
Who should apply: No woodworking experience required! All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
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Contemporary Windsor With Kelly Harris
6 full scholarships (covers tuition and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Furniture maker and tool designer Kelly Harris leads a introduction to building Windsor chairs, a form of furniture that has been fashionable for centuries.
Who should apply: No experience necessary. All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
Contemporary Windsor Side Chair with Aspen Golann
2 half scholarships (covers half of tuition costs and all materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Aspen Golann leads an introduction to building Windsor chairs with a small kit of hand tools, a band saw and wood available from any lumberyard.
Who should apply: Beginners welcome! All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
Introduction to Windsor Chairs with Aspen Golann
1 full scholarship (covers tuition and materials). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
Aspen Golann leads an introduction to building Windsor chairs with a small kit of hand tools, a band saw and wood available from any lumberyard.
Who should apply: Beginners welcome! All applicants must identify as historically excluded or outsiders in the field of woodworking.
Design & Build a Modern Classic
Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
A class designed for first time chair makers and taught with a commitment to inclusivity, barrier breaking, hard conversations, and big love. In this class we will cover the essential techniques required to build a classic Windsor side chair, but we will also go over the surprisingly simple steps of creating your own designs. Whether you are new to woodworking or an experienced maker, Windsor chair making will deepen your appreciation for the strength and versatility of wood and the design tools you’ll practice in this class will give you the confidence to fabricate your own designs. Come make a chair with us!
Twin Windsors
2 full scholarships (covers tuition, materials, and housing). Applications for this opportunity are now closed.
If you identify as a woman or Non-Gender Conforming the Florida School of Woodwork, Aspen Golann and The John D. Mineck Foundation in Partnership with the Society of Arts + Crafts are teaming up to offer two Scholarships to Twin Windsors: Intro to Chairmaking with Aspen Golann.