Category

decommission

Apr 29
Love0

Chair Design

By decommission

With the school quiet right now as we await and adjust to the current situation, we thought we would highlight some of the good woodwork happening around us.  Brian Boggs, chairmaker (among many other things) of Asheville, NC recently posted a video in which discussed his the evolution of his chair designs.  In the 27 minute video, Brian talks through three chairs he’s built over his career- the iconic Jennie Alexander chair, his Berea ladderback and the chair he’s currently focused on – the Cio chair.  He connects the thread of continuity  from his earliest chairs up to today’s contemporary designs.  It’s fascinating to hear his approach, as he’s dedicated decades to thinking through chairs, their designs, and how to push forward with new ideas.

I’ll need to rewatch his short demonstration once more about the Cio chair – there’s so much new in the construction and approach that I didn’t take it all in the first viewing.  In a way the approach reminded me of David Savage’s work, captured beautifully in The Intelligent Hand, in the way Brian uses new materials and techniques to make this wooden chair truly different from his previous post-and-rung designs.

There’s a lot packed into the 27 minutes.  If you’re interested in chairs then there’s something in there for you.  I’m hoping this becomes a more frequent series and am looking forward to the next installment.

Link to Brian’s video. 

–andy glenn

Mar 24
Love0

2020 Season Update

By decommission

Pine Croft students and supporters,

We hope that this email finds you and your families well. Due to the uncertainty caused by the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we have elected to cancel the full season of class offerings this spring/summer.  The safety of our instructors, the community at large, and you as our valued students is of the utmost importance to us at this time.

Monday, March 23rd all registered students will receive full refunds for the classes for which they are registered.

We look forward to brighter days ahead and hope you will rejoin us during the full season of class offerings we are already discussing for 2021.

Be safe and look out for one another.

-Aaron Beale

Feb 07
Love0

Instructors in the News

By decommission

It’s been a week of major honors for a couple of Pine Croft’s visiting instructors.  Nancy Hiller graces the cover of the upcoming Fine Woodworking Magazine issue #281 with an article about building an Arts and Crafts chest originally designed by Ernest Gimson.  Along with Nancy, Megan Fitzpatrick is also featured in Fine Woodworking with a piece about handwork and sawbench making.  Congratulations to Nancy, Megan and Fine Woodworking Magazine for getting together to make the articles happen.  I’m hoping a shop cat or two made it into the magazine as well.

Peter Galbert was just announced as the keynote speaker at the Lie Nielsen Open House this upcoming July 10-11, 2020.  The folks at Lie Nielsen always put on a great event for their open house, inviting all woodworkers and interested parties to their main showroom in Warren, Maine to celebrate making, tools and community.  The Maine midcoast in mid-July is a wonderful place to be.  I went at every opportunity when our family lived a few miles down the road.  I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to attend.

Peter Galbert vists Pine Croft to teach a week-long Windsor chair class May 10-16.

Megan Fitzpatrick comes to Berea June 1-5 for a class on the Anarchist’s Tool Chest.

Nancy Hiller’s Voysey Two-Heart Chair class is slated for June 15-19.

–Andy Glenn

Sep 30
Love0

Instructor: Andy Glenn

By decommission

Andy Glenn

New Bio pic for Andy Glenn

Andy Glenn joined the team at Berea College Student Craft in the summer of 2017. Since Andy’s arrival, the Woodcraft program has begun a return to traditional joinery, hand tool instruction and use, and a re-commitment to the pursuit of excellence that made Berea synonymous with quality handcraft. Andy came to Berea after spending 14 years in the northeast (first in Boston, then Maine), where he trained at the North Bennet Street School (NBSS) before working in repair, cabinet and furniture shops. For ten years, he has taught continuing education classes at NBSS and as a guest instructor in the Cabinet and Furniture Making program. He is excited to help lead the school going forward: “Berea is a welcoming place with amazing creative energy and dedication to craft. We hope to embody those same traits in the school: genuine hospitality, sense of community, and high quality craft. It will be different than it was (it will have to be – there’s only one Kelly Mehler!), though I hope all who attend will find a similar essence in our efforts.” ~Andy Glenn

Sep 30
Love0

Instructor: Brendan Bernhardt Gaffney

By decommission

Brendan Bernhardt Gaffney

Brendan Bernhardt Gaffney is a woodworker, teacher and writer based in Covington, Ky. After learning cabinetmaking from his father (and a stint in academia designing and researching musical instruments) he attended College of the Redwoods (now The Krenov School) where he honed his talents as a designer and maker of fine furniture. Since attending school, Brendan has worn the hats of toolmaker, teacher, writer and furnituremaker, with articles published in Popular Woodworking and Mortise and Tenon magazines. Currently, he is researching and building vernacular chair designs from around the world and writing a biography of James Krenov to be published by Lost Art Press in 2020.

In this three-day class, students will make a greenwood one-slat chair with twelve rungs and four posts. This chair is a great first chair for any aspiring chair makers, and an introduction to post-and-rung chair construction. Each student will start with rough parts, then mortise, shave and join them into simple straight-back chairs that will last a lifetime. We’ll also cover simple seat weaving at the end of the last day, with the goal of sending every student home with a chair ready for “settin’.”

This chair represents nearly every step in the more complicated ladderback chair designs but leaves out the steam bending in the interest of abbreviating and condensing the project to a three-day class. The design can be made at the workbench or on a shave horse with kiln-dried, air-dried or freshly-rived wood. Students will be provided with green wood for the class.

Topics covered in this class will range from beginning green woodworking, working at a shave horse with a drawknife and spokeshave, traditional handwork, chair geometry, simplified shaker tape seat weaving and chair finishing. The simple tools in this class will leave every student prepared to move forward with post-and-rung chairmaking and an understanding of the techniques and tricks that go into making a durable, comfortable place to sit.

Sep 30
Love0

Instructor: Michael Puryear

By decommission

Michael Puryear

Michael Puryear is an internationally recognized designer/furniture maker. He is self-taught learning his craft through reading and experimentation and has been practicing his craft for more than 30 years. His work has been exhibited in Museums and galleries around the US such as the Museum of Art & Design in NYC; Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC and the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, MA. His work has been published widely most recently in Makers: A History of American Studio Craft published by the University of North Carolina Press and Furniture With Soul: Master Wood workers and their Craft published by Kodansha. His work is found in the collections of: the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Rockefeller University and the Newark Museum and the Smithsonian National
Museum of African American History and Culture.

He has taught extensively at many of the craft schools in the US a well as Parson School of Design and was an adjunct associate professor at the State University of New York at Purchase for 13 years. He is a member of Furniture New York, The Hudson Valley Furniture Makers and a former trustee and member of the Furniture Society. He maintains his studio in the Catskill Mountains of NY.

Sep 30
Love0

Instructor: Cathryn Peters

By decommission

Cathryn Peters

Cathryn Peters

Cathryn Peters has been restoring wicker furniture, weaving chair seats and teaching those skills for over 40 years. She has a special passion for passing on her skills to others, so the craft does not become a lost art.

Cathryn has taught chair caning, other seat weaving techniques, and basketry across the country through woodworking schools, folk schools, basket guild workshops, and community education programs. And her antler basketry is frequently juried into art exhibitions and gallery shows nationwide.

Her efforts in the craft business, furniture restoration, and basketry world are mentioned in many books and periodicals including the Crafts Report, Basket Bits, Splint Woven Basketry, and most recently, English Arts and Crafts Furniture by cabinet maker, Nancy Hiller.

Cathryn is a founding member of the first and only North American chair caning guild, called The SeatWeavers’ Guild, Inc.® and served two terms as President since its inception in 2007 until 2011.

Sep 30
Love0

Instructor: Nancy Hiller

By decommission

Nancy Hiller

Nancy Hiller is a full-time professional cabinetmaker with nearly 40 years’ experience. She specializes in period-style work for buildings of the late-19th through mid-20th centuries.

Hiller trained through the City & Guilds of London and worked for two shops in England before moving back to the United States in 1987. Here she worked for other shops before starting her business, NR Hiller Design, in 1995. Her work was chosen for exhibit in the Fearless Furniture show at the Indiana State Museum and she has been a presenter at Woodworking in America (2016) and Fine Woodworking Live (2019). She has taught at the Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking, Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Kansas City Woodworkers’ Guild, and Lost Art Press storefront. She is a frequent contributor to Fine Woodworking Magazine and has written for Popular Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding, and other national publications. In
addition, she has authored four books — English Arts & Crafts Furniture, Making Things Work, A Home of Her Own, and The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History — and is working on a book about kitchens for Lost Art Press.