Chris Williams and I have decided to hold this Welsh stick chair class on May 21-25, 2018, at our Covington, Ky., shop. Registration will open at noon Eastern time on Friday, Oct. 13. You can read more about the class and the shop environment here. Here are the particulars of registration:
- Registration will be electronic. We will post a link at noon on Friday to sign up. Once the six spots in the class are filled, there will be a waiting list. I strongly encourage you to sign up for the waiting list if you want to attend this class. People’s lives change.
- After registering, the six in the class will be sent an invoice for a $500 deposit. The remainder of the fee ($1,000) will be due April 1. Until April 1, your deposit is refundable. After April 1, there are no refunds. I know this is strict, but there are a few students who play a juggling game with classes and deposits. We do not want to play this game.
- Attendees will receive a tool list and details on booking accommodations in the Covington area. Don’t worry – there are lots of rooms here.
- A small materials fee will be due on the day the class begins. I’m trying to source as much of the material from tree services, so I don’t yet know what the fee will be. Likely about $100.
- As mentioned before, we strongly encourage attendees to have some chairmaking experience or a good deal of experience with handwork. The class will be challenging. Chris works to a very high level, and we will do everything to bring you up there as well.
- This will be an intense and gratifying week. All your senses will be involved. As Chris’s assistant and ambassador for Covington, I’ll make sure everyone eats and drinks well and gets a good taste of what this area has to offer. Unless you are a devoted hermit, I think you’ll find the evenings as enlightening and stimulating as the classroom time.
Finally, as I mentioned before, this is not a money-making venture for Lost Art Press or myself. I’ll be handling all the particulars myself, and I’m not a professional secretary or university registrar. So please be patient with me as I put together this special event.
— Christopher Schwarz
I’m sure you don’t want to hear this but for something that will probably sell out in less than a minute, it seems like it would be more fair to have a 24-hour sign-up window for a lottery instead of first-come, first-served. This method discriminates against rural folks with slow Internet.
In fairness, there is no perfect method. Your suggestion would seem unfair to someone that wanted to do the class so much they took an hour of vacation time to sit on the computer and book the reservation. Tough all around. I think the good thing is that this whole thing begets itself as the knowledge is shared and transferred.
Obviously there is no perfect method. It just depends on who one wants to favor in the process. The current process favors the people who are fastest with computers. Someone like my mother would have no chance because she is very deliberate (at best) when filling out web forms. The class would be full before she typed her street address. I’m sure there are plenty of people interested in this class who are much better woodworkers than typists or technologists.
I’ve already witnessed this with Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. Back before the iPhone, the conference wouldn’t sell out. In the years after the iPhone it started selling out in a couple weeks, then a couple days, and eventually a couple minutes. In order to keep it from being a race, Apple made it a lottery and that seemed to satisfy the majority. That’s why I made the suggestion.
I think the lottery system sounds really good, and fair
I’m going to enjoy the frenzy of this.
LAP staff,
I do not know how impractical what I am about to suggest but here goes, would a live cast be a good idea ?PPV Maybe a gallery of spectators, no questions or photos. Or the whole thing recordered with the profits split between all parties. Or should I be committed to a institution or better yet mind my own beeswax ? Ralph McCoy
Hey Ralph,
We don’t have the equipment, expertise or appropriate space to do this. The storefront is an incredibly horrible place for recording sound.
Hey Guys,
If this is really going to be like getting tickets to that last Whitesnake show can you let me know what I am up against? Is this a refresh the screen till the link pops up and then race to fill in the form kind of thing? If it is I am going to have to trick my wife into doing it for me as she types way faster.
Dear Christopher,
Really appreciate the opportunity of this class. Unfortunately its terrible timing for me. I’m a teacher and this is right at the end of the school year… reports, etc… Any chance it will happen again? ( in the summer 🙂 )
Appreciatively, Ric Fry
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