If my teaching schedule for 2013 doesn’t wreck my marriage or alienate my children, then nothing will.
Here’s a list of where I will be teaching in 2013. Note that I don’t control registration at these schools, and I am never sure when each school will open registration (hint: ask the school). I do know this: If a class is full and you want to take it, sign up for the waiting list. There is a good chance you will get in.
Feb. 1-3
Highland Woodworking, Atlanta, Ga.
I’m demonstrating at a Lie-Nielsen event at Highland that weekend and then teaching a Sunday class in building precision layout tools: a straightedge, winding sticks with inlay and a Roubo try square.
March 10-29
Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking, Melbourne, Australia
Yup, I am going below the Equator for the first time to teach in Australia. While I am very excited about seeing the water swirl the opposite way in the toilet, I am more excited about the classes I’ll be offering: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest, Hammer in Hand: The Dovetailed Schoolbox, and a Shaker Wall Cabinet. Plus I’ll be visiting Chris Vesper and French kissing a wallaby.
April 15-21
Rosewood Studios, Perth, Ontario
Another first: Teaching in Canada! I’ve been to Canada many times, but I’ve never taught a class there. At Rosewood, I’ll be teaching The Anarchist’s Tool Chest (renamed to get me through immigration), and a short course on the Shaker Wall Cabinet.
April 27-28
Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, Ind.
This is the annual class I teach on handplanes with Thomas Lie-Nielsen. It is a surprisingly good introduction to handplanes considering it’s only a two-day class. Many of the students from this class have gone on to great things.
May 6-10
Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, Ind.
Marc Adams is always willing to indulge me. So this year he is letting me teach a class on designing and building a campaign chest. Every student will design something that suits them and learn the techniques particular to this form of furniture to build one of the stacking cases for a chest. It should be a fun, but crazy, class.
June 3-7
Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking, Berea, Ky.
In this class we will be design and build Roorkhee chairs (and if there’s time we’ll also make a Roubo camp stool). This class promises to be a lot of fun. You can learn to turn (if you like). Learn leatherwork. Shellac finishing. Riveting. And a whole lot of other hand skills.
June 17-22
Dictum GmbH woodworking school, Niederalteich, Germany
This is my fourth year of teaching at the Dictum workshop, and my German language skills continue to molder. This year, I’ll be teaching a class in making a Roorkhee chair (see above) and a very cool bowsaw. This school attracts students from all over Europe (and beyond). If you’ve ever considered a vacation in Bavaria, this is a very nice place to begin (or end) your journey. The school is in a beautiful monastery and we all spend every evening closing down the local gasthaus.
July 8-12
Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, Ind.
Design and build a trestle table. This is another new class that I am very excited to teach because it relates to my “Furniture of Necessity” book. Students will design their own trestle table in any style they please (with guidance) and then execute it using the awesome equipment at March Adams’s school and their hand tools. You’ll learn about trestle tables from the 14th century to the 21st and be able to build whatever you desire.
July 20-21
Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking, Berea, Ky.
A weekend course on building the three essential wooden layout tools: a straightedge, a pair of winding sticks with inlay and a Roubo try square. THis is a great foundational class in handwork as these three tools are built entirely by hand and have many lessons embedded in them.
Aug. 3-9
Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, Manchester, Ct.
At this fine school I’ll be teaching The Anarchist’s Tool Chest class and a two-day class in building a six-board chest. The six-board chest class will be a hoot, perhaps a bit like a reality show. You’ll be given two boards and a task. And then we will all find the best path forward.
Aug. 26-30
The Woodwright’s School, Pittsboro, N.C.
By request: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest class with Roy Underhill and me. It’s a fun a nut-tastic week with Roy. You will become a good dovetailer at this class. And a good mortiser. And your liver will be a wreck.
Sept. 2-6
Port Townsend School of Woodworking, Port Townsend, Wash.
OK, so we’ve sold more than 10,000 copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” That’s surprising. What’s more surprising is that people are building these chests. I bring the show to the West Coast. This school is in on of the most beautiful hilltops in the world. Even if you hate me and the class, you’ll be soothed by your surroundings.
Oct. 12-14
The Woodwright’s School, Pittsboro, N.C.
Six-board chest deathmatch and quilting bee. By all rights, six-board chests shouldn’t survive the travails of wood movement – yet thousands have. No two six-board chests are exactly alike, yet they all look cut from the same cloth. And how do nails help this humble but noble form of furniture survive the centuries?
You’ll learn all this – and more – as the most hirsute instructor at the Woodwright’s School (me!) leads you on a journey of discovery through the construction of this sometimes inscrutable form. You’ll begin the class with two boards, a handful of tools and a deadline. A steady saw, a hungry chisel and a ferocious hammer will guide you as you construct the chestiest of all the traditional American furniture forms – the six-board chest.
Oct. 15-Dec. 31
Hibernation
— Christopher Schwarz
If you meant Port Townsend in Washington, you’re absolutely right, it’s gorgeous.
Tnx – fixed
Indeed, I love it out there. I’m taking the Tool Chest class with Chris there. I’ve taken a number of courses so far, and they have all been great.
And there is a brewery just minutes away from the school.
You know the thing about water in drains south of the equator is a myth, right?
Great. That’s the only reason he wanted to go, to see the dark magic down-under.
Thank you for the details
Now that looks to be a pretty grueling schedule. That trestle table class is tempting…..
Make sure that your papers are in order before you venture into Canada for gainful employment. About fifteen years ago, I taught a week-long class in Winnipeg, and I didn’t have the appropriate work permit. They made me sit in a glass-walled room at the airport (where all of the murderers and rapists and other undesirables have to sit), for about an hour while they checked everything out. Meanwhile, all of the passengers on all of the other incoming international flights got to watch me sitting there, and wonder what horrific crime I had committed.
Let me give an “amen” on the issue about work permits. As a machinery appraiser, I have to travel to our friends of the North now and then and only by being a touch evasive about my trip can I get in. Most of my co-workers have spent several hours in that glass walled room and a few have been put rejected completely and stuffed into southbound planes. I guess it would be hard to say you are on vacation with a tool chest. It is considerably easier getting in by car than by plane, however. As for your trip to “Oz”, read In a Sunburnt Country by Bill Bryson on the flight down, a very funny read and a good intro to our Aussie friends.
most hirsute? I”m teaching at Roy’s too…
Peter,
When I say hirsute, I mean in a full-bodied sort of way.
Let’s just put a pin in this one. Ping!
I sense a hand-tool death match a brewin’.
Peter is more barbate, you’re more lanuginous.
And you, Meghan, are more verbose.
Sesquipedalian minx.
While in Perth, please make sure to make contact with Derek Cohen. Contact me if you need more details.
Lee (the saw guy)
Seeing as you are breaking into new countries I might start saving now and pray that you end up in merry old England in 2014. Is there anyway to make this happen? We can ensure a (un)healthy supply of Ale/Scotch/Cider etc…
Yes Please come to England 2014- we have LOADS of nice chests here too!
It will be great to see you down under Chris, unfortunately I can’t attend but did get to see you at WIA in 2009 while I was working in the US.
Don’t recommend french kissing roos – see this link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsrNPmCFpW0 and I’ve seen the results on a dog that got too close to a roo once once….
BTW – drop bears are also dangerous but unlikely in Melbourne
Shame you’re only going to Melbourne while in Australia. I’d like to share a few beers and chew the fat with you, but I’m about 3000 miles west of there, in Perth, Western Australia.
Slacker
Thanks for the heads-up, so I can try to plan my summer. Is the ATC class in CT for the full-blown bid-daddy chest, or is there the small-chest option?
regards,
JP
It depends on the school. Some will be offering both. Some offer only the large chest. Check with Bob Van Dyke and see what he’s thinking.
I’ll help you close the klosterhof!
Thanks Bengt. I promise not to take my clothes off this year.
For that I’m particularly grateful!
As are all the monks at the abbey.
I think the more correct question is will your liver survive 2013??? I doubt it, looking at the schedule… It may file for divorce..
Do you have a special liking for Franklin. IN? I’ve spent some time there and never found anything very impressive about it. It was just a sleepy college town with a couple of medium size companies and little else back in the 60s when I spent a year at Franklin College and wound up married.
What’s the draw for you?
The Marc Adams school is fantastic. Good equipment. Excellent facility. The whole operation is run very well.
Franklin itself has a couple great little restaurants. And it is only 90 minutes from my house.
See you in CT for the 6 board, do you drink barley wine? smokey porter ? or Brother Adams Bragart Ale?
kevin
Excellent! Yes, yes, yes and yes.
Great, see you then. Thinking La Fin du Monde
Two boards, one saw, and the truth? I sense a Hendrix like experience. Yeah, count me in.
See you in Ontario in April. Got the last open spot for ATC on October 27th. Flying out from Halifax Nova Scotia with wood and tools. Now all I need to do is to build a tool box to take to a course to build a tool chest. Oh well I need one for site work anyway. As a side note have you stepped foot in the Ontario institution known as “The Beer Store”? If not there’s one a few blocks from Rosewood Studio
Grueling schedule…are you going to quit writing this year?
Nope.
Godspeed!
Damn! Having just learned of your teaching here in Oz this Sydney boy immediately tried to book into one of your Melbourne classes and they are all filled already! I am currently on all the waiting lists … sigh!
I went to the link for the Melbourne classes to book in and couldn’t find them, and discovered that you’ve linked to the wrong woodworking school in Melbourne. It should be the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking (http://www.mgfw.com.au/).
Rachel Grimmer
Yikes. Thank you. Fixed.