While our campus is always humming, the Workshop season keeps it truly bustling with activity. From June to October, students and instructors join us from all across the globe for one- and two-week workshops. Each year we offer our foundational course, Basic Woodworking, alongside a diverse and always changing assortment of classes. Many classes focus on furniture building and design, but we also offer more specialized topics in marquetry, carving, turning, finishing, and instrument making. This week, Tim Rousseau is teaching Classic Casework with Kendrick Anderson, and Kristin LeVier and Josh Vogel are co-teaching Carving Spoons, Carving Sculpture. Scroll through for a glimpse into Workshop Season!

Our annual New Work by Faculty is currently on display in the Messler Gallery. This show provides an excellent opportunity to view the talents and skills of our instructors. This is a diverse show that includes work by 27 craftspeople in the fields of furniture, wood turning, marquetry, painting, and carving. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9-5, and Saturday 10-4, and the show will be on display through September 12th.

Our Workshop season is underway alongside our Furniture Intensive course, so all the buildings are full and bustling with activity. Staff, faculty, and Workshop assistants all work together to provide the highest quality possible experience for our students.

Our current Nine-month Comprehensive students have their work on display in the Messler Gallery until May 30^th 2018, and the pieces represent the first eight months of the program. Be sure to stop by the gallery before the end of the month to check out their impressive range of work!

Our Nine-month Comprehensive class recently wrapped up the Product Development portion of the course, where they spend five weeks intensively designing and developing small furnishings and housewares. While most portions of the Nine-month curriculum focus heavily on technique and design, Product Development also emphasizes real-world concerns such as speed, efficiency, and marketing. The students’ creativity is challenged in creating multiple pieces within a set price point, and this year’s variety included lighting, instruments, plant holders, and even coffins!

Earlier this month, I started my long journey from the northwestern shore of Lake Superior to mid-coastal Maine. I left on a sunny warm March day when the snow was just starting to melt and arrived just in time to experience two nor’easters that left piles of fresh snow in their wake. I came to the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship to be a fellow for the month of March, and to study with Beth Ireland, who teaches the 8-week woodturning intensive at the school.