Teaching schedule 2017

I’m as behind as usual, but I just spent some time listing my teaching schedule as it now stands for 2017. It will be listed at the top of the blog,  – https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/teaching-schedule-for-2017/  – but I’ve copied it below here for now.

In addition, I hope to offer one-on-one instruction here at my new shop. I still have a few bits to finish off first, but just wanted to let people know. there’s 2 benches, and lots of tools. As I think about format, it could be pretty flexible. Students could come for technique-based sessions, like the spoon carving or furniture carving I do. Or we could focus on a project, like the carved boxes. If anyone is interested, email me to discuss your ideas. Peter.Follansbee@verizon.net  I’ll post more about these when I am closer to being ready. Hopefully within 2 months.

Meanwhile, here’s the classes & more at the usual schools…

Teaching Schedule for 2017

The beginning of this year got away from me, so I am just now posting my teaching schedule for 2017. In addition to these classes, exhibition, and other presentations, I hope to offer one-on-one sessions here at my new shop. I have a little fine tuning to finish up, then I can sort that out. I picture these being either techniques, like spoon carving or  carving 17th century patterns; but maybe these could be project oriented too. If anyone is interested, they can email me ( Peter.Follansbee@verizon.net ) & we can tailor something to suit, and go over specifics.

Here’s the schedule as is stands now – there will likely be things added here & there. Right now, there’s nothing with Plymouth CRAFT other than the Greenwood Fest, and I know that we’ll do a few classes during the year. So, more to come.

 

February 18th & 19th, Spoon Carving, CVSWW

Spoon carving class at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. This will be our first time offering this class at Bob Van Dyke’s place. It’s filling up, good winter work, inside carving spoons. I’ll bring some fresh wood, some knives – grab your hatchet & come to CT. http://www.schoolofwoodworking.com/woodworking-classes.html#Speciality_Weekend_Classes 

 

February 28-March 4, North House Folk School

 

I’ll take part in Wood Week at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN. It will be my first time teaching there, I was a student a few years ago, and found the school and the people to be great. I’ll be working on carving 17th-century style designs for furniture decoration and also giving a talk..  http://www.northhouse.org/programs/events/woodcarverweek.htm

 

March 18-June 25, exhibition at Fuller Craft Museum

 

Starting in March, my work will be represented in conjunction with a Plymouth CRAFT exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. There’s an opening reception on Sunday April 9th. Details here http://fullercraft.org/event/living-traditions-the-handwork-of-plymouth-craft/ and http://fullercraft.org/event/opening-reception-for-living-traditions-the-handwork-of-plymouth-craft-and-ellen-schiffman-the-52-box-project/  There will be some more collaboration between Plymouth CRAFT and Fuller Craft, part of which happens during Greenwood Fest.

 

April 21-23, Fine Woodworking Live, Southbridge MA

I’ll be part of the group at Fine Woodworking Live in Southbridge, Massachusetts. http://www.finewoodworkinglive.com/ I’ll be doing presentations about oak joinery, including the carving. It’s quite a line-up, my first time with Fine Woodworking…

 

May 20 & 21, 17th-c style carving , CVSWW

I’ll be back at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking to do a 2-day class in 17th-century style carving. This one is always fun, because we carve patterns that give Bob the creeps…he sees faces in every design. Very unsettling.

June 6-11, Plymouth CRAFT’s Greenwood Fest.

It was such a big hit last year, we were dumb enough to do it again. Still some spaces in some pre-fest classes, and a waiting list for the festival. many got in from the waiting list last year.  https://www.greenwoodfest.org/

 

August 19 & 20, Spoon Carving at Lie-Nielsen

I’ll be up at Lie-Nielsen for 2 days of spoon carving. One of my favorite trips of the year. https://www.lie-nielsen.com/workshop/USA/156

 

Late September – Make a Carved Box, CVSWW

 

We haven’t set the dates yet, but this will probably be a four-day class, around a weekend in September. We’ll carve and assemble a box typical of the 17th-century work I have specialized in for all these years. My only box class this year…details soon.

 

Oct 6-8  Spoon Carving, Woodwright’s School.

 

I’ll be teaching spoon carving down at Roy Underhill’s Woodwright’s School. Fun happens there.

moldings

I have been cutting some moldings lately for a chest with drawers I’m building. The moldings surround the panels, and the drawer fronts. While I was cutting these, I was thinking about this blog. I started it in 2008, and never thought it would keep going this long. Because I didn’t know what I was doing, I never really organized it well. So there’s lots of photos spread out all over the blog that are useful…but sometimes hard to find. Today, I thought I could just post some photos of period moldings found on New England joined works. So here’s pictures.

a chest from Salem, Massachusetts: Tearout, anyone?

a chest with drawers, Plymouth Colony. This large molding (2″ tall) is integral to the rail, not applied.

molding details, Plymouth Colony chest

Inside one of the Plymouth Colony chests, moldings on the rails and muntins:

interior, Ply Col chest w drawers

Here’s a panel detail from Plymouth Colony. This is a common profile for the period, technically an ogee with a fillet, I think:

This one’s from Chipstone’s website – a Boston chest panel:

This is a muntin from a chest made in Braintree, Massachusetts. I used to make this molding with a scratch stock. I think that cutter is gone now…

This Connecticut (Wethersfield? Windsor? I can never get it straight) chest with drawers was the model we copied last time at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. These moldings are oak:

A lousy photo, but if you squint at the ruler’s shadow, you can see the profile of this molding. Dedham Massachusetts chest.

Also Dedham, different chest:

Back to Connecticut, more Wethersfield, Windsor, etc.

a drawer from a Woburn, Massachusetts cupboard:

An ogee on the bottom edge of a table’s apron. Maybe this square table is Boston?

 

Hey, you – your tongue is too long!

 

If your tongue is too long, it can lead to problems. As I found out today when I was fitting the center floor board in a joined chest. Here is the first test-fit of the middle board. It slides under the rear floor rail, and it has tongues cut on each edge, to engage grooves in the boards left & right of it. Seems to be going well, but…

It got tight before it came near the front rail, where it will fit into a groove. Front of the chest is to our left in this photo…

So I checked a few things to see what was holding things up. Made sure the thickness of the board wasn’t binding against the drawer below this floor. Nope, that was fine. But, I noticed the tongues were bottoming out in the grooves…

I pulled it back out, and a few shavings off each edge left a little space for things to work better.

Here is the next test-fit, and at this point I can see that with a good whack it will go all the way into the front rail. (this time front is to the right) But to this point, I hadn’t trimmed the front end yet. So back out again. And that’s why I haven’t beveled the front end yet – if it has to be knocked back out, right now the front end is thick enough to strike it with a mallet. If it were trimmed to fit the groove, it would be too fragile to hit. Yes, I learned this the hard way.

Beveling the front end of the floor board

This one is out of sequence – but this is what the “tongue” looks like. A rabbet on the top face, and a broad bevel on the bottom to form the tongue. I saw this version on some chests I first studied way back when, & I use it whenever I’m not copying a specific chest’s construction…you could use a dedicated tongue & groove matched set of planes too. Or one of many other ways to do this…

Drive it in for real.

Then trim the extra length out back…here I’m bending the saw so my knuckles don’t get chewed up.

This chest will have 2 full-width drawers. I didn’t have time left to begin tackling the 2nd drawer, (first one’s done) so instead I dug out some molding tools and began cutting the applied moldings that decorate 3 sides of this chest. I hadn’t worked moldings with planes in quite a while…it was fun. For this work, I use methods I learned from Matt Bickford, both from his book & video, and from classes with him. His book is so clear, it’s a great explanation of what can be complicated. work. https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice  and https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/moldings-in-practice

To begin (after preparing the blanks) first step is to cut rabbets and chamfers for the hollows & rounds to ride on…

Here the hollow plane is making a rounded profile on this ogee with fillet molding…

I was running out of daylight, so I cut three moldings, then began to miter enough to frame one panel. Here’s the planes & moldings:

And here’s the test-fitted framing. The vertical one on our left will have to be re-done…but it can be used elsewhere, or chopped down for a horizontal. It was nearly dark in the room by this point. Time to come in & write this post. That crooked panel is just plain tough luck. But, as always, I can find old ones that look like that too…I’ll sleep fine tonight.

I forgot to add – still a few spoons left… https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/spoons-for-sale-jan-15-2017/

 

Spoons posted for sale

I’m still slowly getting sorted after moving into the workshop. Posted some spoons for sale today. This hopefully will get back to being a regular occurrence. The link is here, or on the header of the blog page. https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/spoons-for-sale-jan-15-2017/

If there’s something you’d like to order, leave a comment and we can take it from there. Details on the page..

back to work for me…

It snowed, so some photos

a fest, a chest, some spoons

First off, the Greenwood Fest http://www.greenwoodfest.org/ sold out in just about 1 day.  There are still spaces in several of the pre-fest courses; scroll down on the link to read about those offerings. If you missed a ticket to the fest, do get on the waiting list. June is a long ways off, lots can happen between now & then. Last year, many on the waiting list got in. Maybe all. Thanks to all who support Plymouth CRAFT’s programs, we appreciate it. A special hearty thanks to Paula Marcoux, who runs Plymouth CRAFT, organizes the festival and created the website – and answered every question sent to Plymouth CRAFT …and on & on. The rest of us just goof around, Paula does all the work.

In the workshop, I’m getting prepared for this weekend’s edition of the joined chest class at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. http://www.schoolofwoodworking.com/  I’m going to assemble the chest I’m working on, so the students can see what happens when they get to that step. First, I make a lot of tapered oak pins. Shaved, not driven through a dowel plate. These pins are the most critical part of the joinery. They need to be straight-grained, and cleanly cut.

And I need a lot of them. I think 56 in this particular chest. Some are already driven; the front is mostly assembled.

the photo at the top of this post shows me scribing the pin hole on the side rails’ tenons. Here, I’ve knocked those joints apart enough to get in there & bore the holes in the tenons.

Then drive the pins home. 

The shoulder pulls up nice & tight.

I’ll cut & fit the till and install the floor during the class. I’ll try to get shots during the weekend.

SPOON-CARVING –

I carved some spoons recently – one a shape I’ve carved many times – here is the new spoon alongside one about 10 years old. Similar shape, one with a nice broken-in feel, the other brand-spankin’-new. Both birch, both flax oil finish. that’s what using them does to them…I like the look of time & use… I think it also helps to know as you’re carving spoons that what the color & grain look like today is not what they will look like down the line.

Greenwood Fest Instructor: Roy Underhill

Registration opens this morning at 10 am eastern time. http://www.greenwoodfest.org/

as for instructor profile – this one should just be two words:

Roy Underhill

Greenwood Fest Instructor: Pete Galbert

I’ll just do two of these today, then registration opens this morning at 10 am eastern time. http://www.greenwoodfest.org/  – then it will be back to actual pictures of woodworking on the blog, some joinery & carving. wait til you see it…

I’ve got a lot of mileage out of a remark that I make in classes, and I’ll get it over with here. “I hate Pete Galbert” I tell students all the time. They are shocked, and lean in so to not miss some juicy rant…but in the end they are disappointed. It’s just that he’s written the best woodworking book I know, & illustrated it himself. Makes it hard for those of us with books in the works. There, that’s out in the open, now we know how I feel.

Pete, in case you have somehow avoided his work – is right up at the top tier of American chairmakers. He & I have  known each other for several years now, travelling on the same circuit/circus – Lie-Nielsen, Lost Art Press, etc. So we’d bump into each other once or twice a year, but it’s always brief, then we each go off to our demonstrations & classes. He’s moved to Massachusetts now, but we still haven’t got together – he’s always off somewhere, teaching people to make chairs.

 

two views of crest carvings; before & after burnishing & oiling

Pete’s one of those woodworkers who is always improving. He does not just keep repeating what he does, but tinkers with techniques, tools (he’s developed some great chairmaking tools) construction – his work is always evolving. He & I have not sat down & figured out exactly what he’s doing in the festival, but I know it’s worth seeing. A great teacher & chairmaker, this will be his first time with Plymouth CRAFT, we hope it’s the beginning of something. Oh, & he’ll probably bring that great book of his too. You should get it if you haven’t already. Every time I look at it, I’m itching to make a Windsor chair again.

I swiped all these photos from his website (the top one is old, not sure he keeps goats in Boston)  – http://www.petergalbertchairmaker.com/  and here is Instagram https://www.instagram.com/petergalbert/

the book https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/chairmakers-notebook

Greenwood Fest Instructor: Darrick Sanderson

Rick McKee would be ashamed as I mix sports metaphors, by referring to a pinch-hitting hockey player – but last summer Darrick/Derek Sanderson stepped up as a pinch hitter at Greenwood Fest and knocked it out of the park. Off the ice? I’ll shut up now & get on with it.

 

In addition to turning bowls on the pole lathe, Derek is a spoon carving phenom. I heard recently (I forget where) that there are days when he hardly carves any spoons. Just 4 or 5. A good week’s output for me! In April 2016, Jarrod wrote about a visit out to Derek’s place, where he saw the entire arc of Derek’s spoon carving –  “Over the 4 years Derek has been carving spoons, he’s made about 1400 of them.  He’s saved nearly all of them.” That’s a staggering number of spoons!

Derek will be manning the pole lathe part of the time, just like he did last year; turning bowls, teaching, explaining techniques – I remember it seemed as if he woke up and started woodworking in the next breath. Always with a crowd around him. So we’re quite pleased to bring him back this season.

 

Derek’s Instagram is here: https://www.instagram.com/dcsandersoninc/

Greenwood Fest Instructor: Dave Fisher

I have a few more of these introductions – I’ve lost track of time again & again lately & now the opening of registration for our event is coming up tomorrow. so a barrage of instructor profiles. This one’s easy – Dave Fisher.

If life were a horror movie, we’d find out at the end that Dave is actually Satan. He just is too nice, too helpful, patient, talented  – to be for real. So I keep thinking there must be a shoe to drop in the end. But, this ain’t no movie. Dave is actually just the best there is. His bowl carving is head & shoulders above any others I know of today;  certainly in this country. His finish, the forms and shapes, and of course, the carved decoration. Each bowl is a new look at the form. His inscribed carvings knock people over…

Don’t take my word for it – look at his bowls:

When he’s not carving, Dave is a school teacher, so he knows how to present this work very effectively. We had a class with him last July and it was a big hit. Before the Greenwood Fest, he’ll be teaching  a 2-day class in hewing and carving the bowls – then will be doing that work & more during the festival. He will present a a short (3 hour) session in letter-carving. He does these with a stupid little jack knife…

His blog and website are here https://davidffisherblog.wordpress.com/ and  http://davidffisher.com/

Greenwood Fest registration opens tomorrow, Wednesday Jan 4th, at 10 am, eastern time. http://www.greenwoodfest.org/