Lost Art Press

Category: Woodworking Classes

We Have No Class(es) at LAP

Posted on by fitz
The last class at LAP was in March 2020…which feels like a lifetime ago. (It was a stick chair class with Chris Schwarz, during which was the serendipitous arrival of Chris Williams’ book on John Brown.)

I’ve been getting many questions lately about classes at our storefront; right now, we have none scheduled. We won’t schedule any here until everyone here has gotten the COVID-19 vaccination, and until the adoption thereof is widespread.

I know some schools have released schedules and opened registration for this year – I’m rolling the dice on getting stuck (twice) in time to safely teach at two of them: Berea, Kentucky’s Woodworking School at Pine Croft May 14-16 (Dutch tool chest) and Tampa’s Florida School of Woodworking Sept. 20-24 (Anarchist’s Tool Chest).

But our shop is also Chris’ family home, so we’re not taking any chances.

And when it is safe for us to schedule classes again, I have no idea what they will be…except that I will teach a tool chest class of some kind, natch.

In the meantime, you can catch me at one of the schools above, and catch Chris online at Colonial Williamsburg’s 23rd Annual Working Wood in the 18th Century conference. He’s speaking on period workholding on low workbenches and showing how to make a staked stool, as well as delivering an after-dinner talk on how studying the architecture around you can make you a better furniture designer. If you’re interested in Chris’ talks, best hurry; conference registration closes Jan. 8 at 8 a.m. EST. (The conference is a live stream Jan. 14-17, and some sessions will be available on demand.)

My last class here was in February 2020 – I miss teaching so much that I even miss the ATC stock prep…almost.

Florida School of Woodwork Now Accepting Scholarship Applications

Posted on by Kara Uhl
The Florida School of Woodwork is located in a renovated motor-winding plant near downtown Tampa and has 4,000 square feet of light-filled space.

The Florida School of Woodwork is now accepting applications from aspiring women woodworkers for its Tabitha Babbitt Scholarship.

The scholarship is open to “women and those who identify as female both nationally and internationally and is part of the school’s ongoing efforts to increase diversification in the craft.”

The school and woodworking community worked together, raising more than $7,000 via a raffle. Prizes included handmade furniture, equipment and a deluxe copy of “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture”. Proceeds from the raffle will fund seven week-long class scholarships.

To apply, email Kate@SchoolofWoodwork.com with the following:

• Name and date of the class you’d like to attend (plus two alternates if your first choice is not available)

• 100-150 word description of why you’d like to attend

If selected, your scholarship will cover the full tuition of the class and, when deemed appropriate, a small travel stipend. Apply now through January 30. Scholarships will be awarded via email between December 31 and February 28. Check out all the details here.

To learn more about the Florida School of Woodwork and its founder, Kate Swann, check out Nancy Hiller’s two-part interview series here.

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

Classes at the Storefront

Posted on by Lost Art Press
One of the many “COVID chairs” I’ve built during the last seven months.

With woodworking schools opening across the country, we are asked almost every day when we will resume classes here. Here’s the deal.

We plan to wait until there is a safe vaccine for COVID-19. There are several reasons for that decision.

  • Classes here can be physically strenuous because of the handwork. Students sweat, huff and puff a lot as they saw, plane and chop. Doing that work with a mask is misery, and the heavy breathing is ideal for spreading the virus.
  • Our workshop is compact. Keeping people at a safe distance is difficult, even with small classes.
  • Our students come from all over the world. Some of our students are older and therefore more vulnerable to the virus.
  • My mother and Lucy’s mom (both local) are both particularly vulnerable to the virus, and we see them several times a week.
  • If anyone got sick (or worse) at one of our classes, Megan Fitzpatrick and I would never forgive ourselves.

As soon as a vaccine is readily available, we will open our doors for classes and a long-overdue open day. If you want to be among the first people informed about classes, the best way is to subscribe to our blog. Simply enter your email in the box near the top right of this page by the headline: “Subscribe to the blog via email.” You won’t get spam. We don’t sell people’s addresses or have sponsors/advertisers. You’ll just get an email every time there is a new entry.

We look forward to having some new faces around here. I know Megan must be sick of me and my prattling on about chair design and marsupial trivia.

Until then, stay safe and we hope to see you soon.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Sunshine School: The Florida School of Woodwork

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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I just finished up teaching seven days of classes at the Florida School of Woodwork in Tampa, Fla., an urban school in a rapidly gentrifying area of the city that has an excellent facility and an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and hard-working owner, Kate Swann.

The Florida School of Woodwork is officially about two years old, though Kate ran her professional furniture-making business there for many years along with Carl Johnson.

I’ve always thought that Florida – with 21 million residents – didn’t have its fair share of woodworking schools. Lost Art Press has thousands of customers in the state, and the blog receives significant traffic from the Sunshine State. We also get a lot of questions from beginning woodworkers in Florida who ask: Where should I go for instruction and community?

Now they have an answer.

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The school is located in a renovated motor-winding plant just north of downtown Tampa and near the new and bustling Armature Works and blocks and blocks of renovated Craftsman bungalows.

The front bench room and machine room is illuminated by enormous storefront windows. Each student works at a Benchcrafted workbench and with a wall-mounted kit of hand tools. The machines are well-maintained and safe (SawStops). There’s a nice break room, an overflow machine room at the back and a covered area to eat your lunch back by the local meadery. Oh and the floor of the shop is a sprung wooden floor – it’s great for your back and knees.

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And there’s Kate. Affable and hand-working, Kate spent the seven days making sure the students had everything they needed, built jigs for my class, greeted the curious who stopped by and kept each day running smoothly.

Also impressive is the programming. The classes run the gamut, from a one-day class where you turn your first cup to multi-week advanced seminars with Michael Fortune. Project classes span a wide variety of styles, from period pieces to Arts & Crafts, Mid-century Modern to pieces with a serious artistic bent.

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About half of my 10 students were from Florida, with the rest from states as far as Iowa and Texas. Many out-of-staters brought their families – February in Florida is about as nice as it gets. Also interesting – many of the students were repeat customers, which is remarkable for a young school.

I’ll be returning to the Florida School of Woodwork to teach in 2022 (my 2021 is already overbooked). But don’t wait for me. Check out the complete list of upcoming classes here. Florida finally has the woodworking school it has long deserved.

— Christopher Schwarz

More Classes – Here & Abroad

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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All my classes at the Covington, Ky., storefront are full (I highly recommend you join the waitlist here – people’s lives can change dramatically in a moment). But I now have classes in Germany and Florida that have opened their registration for 2020.

All of these are classes that I’ve never taught before (always fun). Here are the details:

Japanese Siding-lid Box, Feb. 22-23, 2020
Florida School of Woodwork, Tampa, Fla.

In this class we’ll make a reproduction of a Japanese sliding-lid box I measured while I was overseas. It’s a fun project to make. Though the joinery is simple – finger joints and steel dome-head nails – the real challenge is keeping all the details crisp and producing beautiful surfaces.

Staked Worktable, June 30-July 4, 2020

Dictum, Niederalteich, Germany

The Staked Worktable from “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is one of my favorite original designs. And I’m excited that Dictum has agreed to run this course. It’s a bit of a challenging project because of the sheer scale of the materials – large legs, large compound-angle mortises and some big sliding dovetails. The class takes place on the grounds of a beautiful monastery in Niederalteich, Germany.

Introduction to Chairmaking, July 5-8, 2020

Dictum, Munich, Germany

This four-day class is a solid introduction to making contemporary chairs using traditional methods. We’ll get into basic steam-bending, compound-angle joinery, tapered mortise-and-tenon construction and saddling a seat. Because we are building a side chair (instead of a more involved armchair) the pace will be less brutal and we’ll be able to explore alternative methods throughout the week. The classroom is in the heart of Munich, right by a large train station with lots of places to eat and things to do. So bringing your family might be a good idea.

In the coming weeks, I hope to announce three more classes for 2020 – two in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. We are still working out the details, and then I’ll announce them here.

— Christopher Schwarz