I have been invited back to Germany this summer to teach a four-day introduction to chairmaking course at Dictum’s classroom in Niederalteich, a gorgeous monastery in Bavaria.
The class is in English (my German is terrible), and the location is a fantastic place to stay and learn. You can rent a room at the monastery. And we all eat meals together in the monastery’s gasthaus.
The class runs from July 9-12. Beginning chairmakers are most welcome. In the class we will each build a simple backstool and focus on the fundamentals – the angles, the joinery and training your hands to be a chairmaker.
While the chair shown is unsaddled, we will also cover basic saddling.
You can read more about the area and the class here.
I hope to teach a Dutch tool chest class the following week in Munich. More details on that class soon.
— Christopher Schwarz
Dude, it must be super cool to be you!
If you can arrange another course like this is a couple of years I’ll take you up on it!!
What an awesome opportunity.
If I had the vacation days…
a week in germany woodworking
a week (or two) on either side of that bombing around exploring?
What a way to spend a July
Hope everyone that signs up enjoys.
I´m so thrilled!!!
As for the translation I quote my daughter: “Dad, English is not a foreign language – it´s a necessity, like brushing teeth. You just have to.” :-)) I´m sure I´m not the only one here in Germany reading every post and watching your videos all the time. And I´m telling others too. By the way: I spotted a young woman in a local train sporting a tatoo of your iconic Stick Chair Logo on her arm! Mesmerized I had to talk to her! Neat and surprising encounter!
My best regards
Michael
That‘s awesome! Did you manage to snap a picture?
Speaking of German backstools, I recently saw a story (which I now can’t find) about the Fuggerei in Augsburg, the oldest existing social housing complex in the world. “Jakob Fugger founded the Fuggerei in his own and his brothers’ names in 1521. Approximately 150 needy Augsburg citizens of the Catholic faith live here for an annual base rent of €0.88 and three daily prayers.” In the museum there appear to be a number of medieval three-legged backstools.
https://www.fugger.de/en/fuggerei/hearing-seeing-and-experiencing-history
https://www.123rf.com/photo_65763870_augsburg-germany-september-08-2016-historical-display-of-medieval-kitchen-with-table-chair-stove-and.html
I was looking forward to this announcement and thus I couldn’t go faster to the Dictum store to book the course. Unfortunately it seems to be already fully booked. Please keep us posted about your next visit or any additional courses you offer in Germany or somewhere else across the pond. You probably stick around in Europe then a little longer, do you?
Ahh, Deutschland! My brother and his family live in Gelsenkirchen which is just north of Essen. I’d love to come, but can’t. If you ever do something in the Rheingebiet (Rhein basin) I’ll try and make it. I did woodworking in Italy many many years ago so I should try Germany now.
Really love that photo.
That would be so much fun!
Tempting, but I won’t make it, unfortunately. Hopefully you’ll be here again in a few years!
Any chance of a beer meetup with folks not attending the workshop? I can’t attend the class but live just over the border and would be happy to come over for a beer & chat…
I wish – but find it hard to come to Germany anymore after their criminalisation of people marching for Palestine and banning people from speaking about it. So I will have to make do with my woodworking weekend at home with CELT skills in the west of Ireland! Best of luck.
What? You can attend a pro-Palestine march any given day in Germany. And pro-Israel ones, too. Just take a look outside your bubble. Greetings from, well, Germany.
Looking forward to meeting you in Niederalteich! Really great, that you come over to Germany again for teaching! Thumbs up also for Dictum, that they make this happen!
I saw that course a few weeks ago on dictums homepage and I’m so glad I got a spot! Looking so much forward to the course and meeting you! Is there any chance that you could bring me a Crucible Engraving Tool?
Of course I’ll pay for it!! I’m following your substack blog, missed that chance to buy it via eBay months ago and after reading the blog and most of “The American Peasant”, I would love to start with engraving. It’s a pitty that dictum doesn’t sell your crucible tools!