Our 24th Season Is Off and Running!

We are thrilled to kick off our 24th season; providing you with the finest in hands-on woodworking education. Our new season promises to bring you an inspiring line-up of hands-on woodworking classes and workshops, taught by the very best woodworkers the world has to offer, in the best equipped facilities available anywhere in North America.

We are in the last week of June and this week brings four more amazing classes to our halls. In the front machine shop and Outpost bench room we've got our own staff helping finish 14 Maloof-inspired rocking chairs in "Sculptural Rocking Chair II with the Staff. This class will be a rare opportunity for students to come and finish their chairs under the guidance of Marc and the MASW staff. Students will be making replacement parts, sculpting, grinding, sanding, gluing, and even spraying lacquer on their newly finished chairs. Students will be guided on placement of hard and soft lines, carving details and fine tuning the fit. By Friday they'll have their own classic Maloof-style rocker finished and ready to take home!

In our back bench room and machine room, we are always pleased to welcome Mark Arnold to the school with "Buried in Bandings: A Demilune with Eye Appeal." In this class, students will focus intensively on the broad range of possibilities for veneering and inlaying the top, edge, apron, and legs of a Federal-inspired table. Mark will also delve into the nuances of spade/therm feet designs for classy tapered legs. Since almost every surface has some sort of detail, students will learn troubleshooting the best sequence of steps for a successful finished piece. By the end of the week, each student will be ready to apply Federal-period quality embellishments to their own pieces of furniture.

Meanwhile, in our dedicated lathe center and all the way from Jerusalem, we have "Woodturning Techniques with Eli Avisera". This weeklong workshop will be full of learning methods and techniques in turning wood from the foundation skills all the way to advanced techniques. Eli's students will start with sharpening tools, such as the skew, convex bevel and all kinds of gouges including a double bevel, then how to use these sharp tools the right way. Eli will demonstrate turning between the centers, turning bowls, platters, boxes and hollow forms. Best of all, there will be lots of hands-on practice with Eli by their sides. By Friday, each student will have advanced their turning abilities and have had the experience of working with one of the best turners in the world!

Finally, in our outbuilding, we have a brand new offering in the guise of "Glow & Blow: An Introduction to Neon with David Svenson." Students in David's class will gain a basic understanding of manufacturing neon tubes and the step by step procedure of creating neon tubes as well as the maintenance and safety of the specialized equipment. Examples of both traditional and artistic neon will be presented and demonstrated. Neon involves a multifaceted set of skills from the challenges of flame working the glass tubing, to the scientific process of charging the tubes with the inert gas. The class will explore neon as a "mixed media" and how these luminous tubes can be incorporated and presented with other materials such as wood, glass, and concrete.

Just a typical week here at Marc Adams School of Woodworking!

Craftsman May Be Lying To You

By Scott Grove

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