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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.

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.

Instructor: Peter Galbert

By decommission

Peter Galbert

Peter Galbert bio photo

Peter Galbert is a full time chairmaker, toolmaker, teacher and writer.

Peter has taught at many craft schools around the country including the Penland School of Crafts, the North Bennet Street School, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking, Highland Woodworking, the Arrowmont School of Crafts and The Port Townsend School of Woodworking.
Besides making chairs and teaching, Peter also writes the Chairnotes blog and produces the Galbert Caliper as well as other woodworking tools. He currently lives and works in Boston, MA. In 2015, he published his first book Chairmaker’s Notebook with Lost Art Press