The workshop / classroom

What I do is very hard to describe.

My work tends to fall into two separate categories:

There’s one lot which is geometric, but the other one is where you’ve got a three dimensional complex form and you form that with every cut.

Video by Cross Border Productions

What the workshop / classroom provides for the students

Giving myself good tools and a good workspace is giving myself every reasonable chance of success with my work.

Tools that you will need. If I use second rate tools and poor materials I am setting myself up to fail. It is true, of course, that fancy tools will not make me a good woodworker, but good tools will certainly make it much easier for me to become one, as will a good workspace. Doing fine work is hard enough without having unnecessary difficulties added to it.

Skills that you can acquire. By having good hand skills I save myself the need for a lot of gadgets, and I can invest the savings in better quality tools. If I can’t, or won’t, buy this quality, my only option is to learn how to acquire and tune second hand tools so that they will work as well as I need them to.

Environment that supports you. Having a comfortable, attractive workspace can be vitally important because, if doing the work is optional, we have to want to go and do it. If the workspace does not encourage this, if it is not a place that we love to be in, that we find ourselves (and our mates) going to simply because we like being there, then getting ourselves to the bench and beginning work becomes a battle that is too easily and too often lost. When we don’t have to force ourselves to not go there, we will get some work done.