Fine Furniture Design

New Courses in 2015 14/11/2014

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 16:23:00 +0000

Courses in 2015

NEW! French polishing

Derek Jones, editor of Furniture and Cabinet Making magazine, has started running french polishing introduction courses from 'robinson house studio'. The two days are an intensive introduction to the art, something that takes years to master. Dates for the course are 25th-26th April 2015, more details can be found details on www.newenglishworkshop.co.uk.

Weekend taster courses Jan

We have limited spaces available for our taster weekend 31st Jan - 1st Feb 2015. Over the two days you will be introduced to essential skills such as planing, chiseling and sawing. Details are on the website, or contact us here to book.

Intake in May

Our next intake for any of our full time courses is May 2015, spaces are once again filling up fast so get in touch here to book yourself in. On the one year furniture making course you will learn how to make furniture to the highest of standards, create 3 of your own projects designed by you and delve into other valuable skills like CAD, laminating, steam bending, welding and many more. See the website for more details.

NEW! 2nd Year Course

This course will be particularly aimed at people who may have done a course elsewhere or are self taught and are looking to develop and hone their skills. The format is the same as the second year in our year in two year course and will benefit from in our house diploma scheme. Students who wish to take on this course will be encouraged to push the boundaries and experiment with multiple materials to create their own designs.

NEW! Gift Vouchers

Our gift vouchers for a furniture making course make ideal presents for Christmas, birthdays, retirement, or a colleague leaving a job. Check our website for more details!

Social Media

Instagram

Our Instagram has been growing at a rapid rate the last few months. Follow us @robinsonhousestudio to see everyday goings on in the studio, student projects as well as current commissions and speculative work we are creating.

Youtube

We are currently developing a youtube channel to launch next year with all sorts of 'how to' videos from sharpening to laminating. Check our channel and watch this space next year for more to come.

https://www.youtube.com/user/marcfishdesign/videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB4PmdQhTqk

Pinterest

Our Pinterest page is reserved for our 'inspirational pics', things that make us tick, things that we try to take something from and incorporate into our own ideas. It has everything from art, sculpture, nature, tools, and even some furniture! Have a look now and follow us at http://www.pinterest.com/cabinetmaking/

Thanks for checking us out, next time I will put up some pictures of what we have been working on!

Danny

Brighton Festival 21/05/2014

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Wed, 21 May 2014 12:58:00 +0000

Brighton Artist's Open House Festival

Every year in Brighton and surrounding areas artists displaying their work in 'open houses' every weekend in May. We usually do three weekends but this year have decided to just do the last one which is this weekend (24th and 25th).

We will have student work on display, as well as Nautilus Special as a work in progress. Some of our ex-students and bench space guys will also be exhibiting their furniture. If you are interested in doing a course with us, Marc will be available all weekend to have a chat and provide more info.

Like last year, our 3D printer will be working away for the weekend and we now have a 3D scanner - come and have your head scanned!

Course Dates

Spaces are available for the following courses:

Weekend Courses

Laminating – 14^th & 15^th June

Introduction to furniture making – 12 & 13^th July

Finishing – 27^th & 28^th September

Long Courses

Next 50 week course intake – 3^rd November – LIMITED SPACES

London trip

Last week we took our 1 year students up to London to Collect at the Saatchi Gallery. As always there was an impressive array of ceramics, glassware and sculpture, all made with top notch craftsmanship.

After Collect, we made our way to the Tate Modern, stopping off on the way at Pimlico Road to have a peek in Linley's and Andrew Lamberty's shops.
Our London trips are always a good day out and a great opportunity to get some new inspiration!

Check out @robinsonhousestudio on Instagram for pictures from the trip!

Social Media

We are now up and running on all the major social media sites: I have to say that I am quite excited about the interesting content we have started to upload to Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. Why not take a look at some of the pictures we like and inspire us, we would be honoured if you would like to follow us and please let us know if you think we would be interested in something for these.

Tumblr profile http://marcfish1971.tumblr.com/

Facebook www.facebook.com/cabinetmaking

Instagram http://instagram.com/robinsonhousestudio

Nautilus Special

Chris is absolutely blasting through the latest Nautilus table, we are almost all the way round the largest former as you can see in the background. This Nautilus will be absolutely massive, watch this space for progress pics!

Tip of the week

A couple of weeks ago Marc asked me to make some bog oak dowels for his new project. I used a technique that one of my tutors taught me at college, and thought I'd share it as tip of the week.

If you've ever made your own dowels, you may have used one of these, and used a cordless drill to drill the timber through the holes…

The problem with dowel pops is that you have to go down through each different sized hole to get the desired size which is quite time consuming. If you are making just one dowel then it is fine but when you are making a whole load like I was then you may want to take the time setting up a router jig. The idea is to use a cordless drill to turn the timber as you pass it over the top of a router cutter, giving you perfect dowels.

Find yourself a board of MDF big enough to screw to a workbench with enough overhanging to fit a router underneath and mark out where the router will go. I used a Veritas centre punch (great little tool) because it fits perfectly in the bolt holes on the router.

Drill the holes and bolt the router to the underside of the MDF.

You also need to use a forester bit big enough to accommodate the router's collet, and drill this in the middle, so the collet can pass through the MDF.

Next, you need a block of wood with three holes in it. On one side, you drill a hole that will be your dowel finished size, e.g. 6mm, and mark it 'OUT'. On the opposite side, drill a hole 1mm-2mm bigger and mark in 'IN'. These two holes must line up perfectly so you may want to drill all the way through with a 6mm bit before drilling halfway through with a larger bit.

On the bottom, drill a hole with a forstner bit to allow for the router cutter. This needs to be deep enough that you drill past the other two holes.

Screw the block of wood to the top of the jig, making sure the collet holes line up and neither the collet nor the cutter rub on the wooden block anywhere. Fit the router underneath and line up the top of the cutter to the bottom of the 'OUT' hole. You will need test pieces so cut some timber on a bandsaw to fit snugly in the 'IN' hole.

Mount the timber in your cordless drill and turn it while pushing it through the holes. It will pass over the top of the router cutter (make sure your router cutter will cut on top and not just on the sides) making it round. If you get the height of the cutter absolutely spot on then it will fit nicely through the 'OUT' hole.

What I found is that if you set the cutter height to be fractionally lower that the bottom of the 'OUT' hole then because the timber is slightly bigger, as it goes through it gets burnished by the hole and comes out looking polished. This is great if you want to cut out the sanding and finishing processes afterwards!

Nautilus III 30/04/2014

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 02 May 2014 10:48:00 +0000

Nautilus III

I mentioned a few months ago that Nautilus III had been commissioned and on Monday we sent it off to the states. Unlike it's predecessors, this one was made in sycamore and birch rather than walnut which gives a more subtle contrast on the outside of the table. It was also smaller than the last two and Marc added an extra detail as you can see in the photos.

Nautilus Special

The next Nautilus to be made will not be part of the series and will be huge in comparison. Airpress have had to custom make us a vacuum bag 5m x 4m to accommodate the formers. The original Nautilus size was about 2m across and this one will be about 2.8m! Here's Chris stood next to the formers figuring out how he's going to make it…

Social Media

You can now follow us on various social networking sites to keep up to date with the progress in the workshop.

Instagram - @robinsonhousestudio / http://instagram.com/robinsonhousestudio - This is being used for day to day workshop pictures.

Tumblr - http://marcfish1971.tumblr.com - Tumblr is where you'll find inspirational pictures that Marc has collected over the years.

Facebook - www.facebook.com/cabinetmaking - Facebook will mainly be news updates.

Student Work

Ian joined us at the beginning of the year for 50 weeks, here is his first project - a pair of boxes, one in 5300 year old bog oak with a cocobolo base, the other in rippled sycamore and leather base.

The box above looks like a normal rectangular box but is actually the same box as the one below. This was what Ian wanted to achieve by playing around with angles and perspective.

One Week Courses

We have had a lot of interest in one week taster courses recently. A few weeks ago Colin travelled halfway across the world from Hong Kong to learn from us. Over the week he covered sharpening, sawing, chiseling, plaining, finishing, dovetails and even squeezed in a timber yard trip with Marc.

Last week we had four one week students, and one of them, Jeremy, loved it so much he sent Marc a testimonial:

"I want to send a huge THANK YOU for the brilliant week I spent at Robinson House. I learned an enormous amount and enjoyed every minute of it. It was also great talking to your colleagues and 1-year students, and learning that they all find you as fantastically inspiring as I have! The atmosphere is very special.

Among the many things that struck me were: 1. How great design is the backbone of everything you do, and 2. How beginner students are expected on Day 1 to strive for the same levels of precision that you achieve.

I have been talking about it all weekend to anyone who will listen, and proudly showing off my 95.00mm block of wood.

Now it’s time to get down to the workshop and start applying what I learned with you. (and buy some more expensive tools of course….such a bore…..)

Thank you again for an unforgettable week!"

If you have been thinking about doing a course here at 'robinson house studio' then why not try it for a week? Remember, if you sign up for the longer course then the week taster is free!

Other Courses

The next student intake (May) is now sold out, we have one 50 week space in Novemeber and there are still places available in August for 12 week courses.

We are running a two day laminating course 14th and 15th June. This is well worth it and covers more than just the basics. Get in touch through the website to get booked in.

Charlie Whinney will be back in August to do his one day steam bending course. Charlie is a steam bending guru and doesn't come down this way very often so take the opportunity while it's there!

http://www.charliewhinney.com

Car Design Clay

If you follow us on Instagram then you may have noticed Marc has begun experimenting with using clay as a design tool. In Shanghai, Marc met a man that makes clay models for Jaguar. This particular type of modelling clay is used in the car industry for making new designs and concepts as you can see in the picture. But why not apply it to furniture? To use it, it needs to be heated in an oven to make it malleable, and hardens as it cools. Watch this space, more to come…

3D Scanner

We now have a 3D scanner which will be used for scanning clay models to print on the 3D printer. We haven't tried it yet so keep following us to see what we come up with.

http://cubify.com/en/Products/Sense

Brighton Artist's Open House Festival

It's that time of year again when we open the doors of the workshop to the public and exhibit our work along with student work. We will only be doing one weekend this year - May 24th/25th - come and visit us!

Thanks for checking us out!

Danny

Shanghai update March 21st 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 19:37:00 +0000

Shanghai update.

Mollusque low table sells in China

Mollusque I has sold in Shanghai China as part of Design Shanghai. As Danny mentioned in the last post we exhibited two pieces of work, which were received very well by the Chinese press, public and buyers. As a result Mollusque was sold to one of the owners of PolyAuction.
PolyAuction is China's biggest auction house rivalling Christies or Sotheby's over here. This is a great honour to have our work purchased by such a discerning client.

We are planing to return to China next year with an exhibition of our best student's work. More on this nearer the time.

Social Networking

We are using instagram as a making platform. All pictures to do with furniture making and daily student work in progress pictures are now being uploaded.

Tumblr we are using for inspirational moody pictures, this represents my interest in natural forms and textures. This is looking very cool!

Facebook is being used mainly for news, Shanghai etc and also acting as a summary of the other two platforms.

Why not follow us more closely?

http://marcfish1971.tumblr.com/

www.facebook.com/cabinetmaking

http://instagram.com/robinsonhousestudio

Design Shanghai 04/03/2014

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:39:00 +0000

Design Shanghai

Last week Marc exhibited at Design Shanghai which attracted over 40,000 architects, interior designers and general public. Marc's exhibition was inundated with curious consumers interested in his designs as you can see in the video below!

Marc took L'Orchidee, his desk made in 2011, and Mollusque was shipped over from Todd Merrill's gallery in new york to make for a pretty smart looking display.

http://www.designshowshanghai.com/uk/

Artist of the Month

As Marc has been in China for Design Shanghai, I was inspired to pick a Chinese artist. Zheng Chunhui spent four years recreating the scene from a famous Chinese painting called 'Along the river during Qingming festival'. The whole piece is carved from one solid tree trunk and is the largest wood carving in the world.

Tool Review

A couple of our newest students have bought themselves specialised shooting planes made by Veritas. I like Veritas a lot, they always strive to innovate rather than make tools just like all the others on the market, and the shooting plane is no exception.

You'll have to make yourself a new shooting board with a track but once you have, it works perfectly and is a lot easier to handle than a No. 5 1/2 or No. 7 on it's side.

The skewed blade makes for an easier cut and the adjustable mouth is useful for heavier or finer cuts.

The handle is also adjustable so you can find what feels most comfortable for you.

In general, it is a nice addition to a hand plane collection but unless you do a lot of shooting by hand, at £359.95 from Axminster it may be something of a luxury item.

Student Work

Neil Davies

Pair of stools in wenge.

Martin Jelinek

Console table in walnut, anigre and ebony detailing.

Brian Sack

Box in bird's eye maple and leather.

Ex Students

Please take a second to check out former a couple of our former students' websites. They completed their courses last year and are now running their own businesses and taking on commissions!

www.coaneandco.com

www.krislamba.com

Apologies for the lack of blogging recently, as Marc said a few weeks ago, I had an accident (not at work!) and have been off since November but I am now back at work and will keep you updated with the goings on in the workshop!

Danny

Guild mark panel appointment

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 21:26:00 +0000

Marc has been appointed to the panel of judges for the Bespoke Guild Mark scheme. Run by The Worshipful Furniture Makers Company the Guild Mark is a great accolade for the maker, a mark of excellence. To be chosen to sit on the committee is a great honour and one Marc is very excited being a part of.

Danny's slip

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 20:45:00 +0000

Hi there, I would like to apologise to all faithful readers of this blog. Unfortunately Danny broke his ankle before Christmas and we have not been able to put any entries since then. It has been a hard couple of months without his help and lots to organise regarding our China trip. We are just starting to come out of it now and back to blogging. Please keep an eye out for new posts here. We are also now putting pictures on Instagram http://instagram.com/robinsonhousestudio

Bye for now, Marc

New Students 11/10/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:49:00 +0000

New Students

October is one of our intake months when new students join us to embark on their journey at 'robinson house studio' and last we welcomed Andy, Salonaz, Sarah, Mike, Rahim and Matt into the workshop!

New Staff Member

This week we had a new addition to the 'robinson house studio' team. Calvin Molloy will be joining us for a placement year as part of his degree in Product Design at Brighton Uni.

We also have new uniforms! Check out these handsome lads...

Student Work

Darren Hancock

Darren has now finished his 50 week course, having joined us last October. He studied architecture at Northumbria University and so already had a good knowledge of design, albeit from a different background, before starting his course. His final project is a hi-fi cabinet in walnut and birch, which was a commission for a private client.

Martin Jelenik

Martin is about 6 months into his 50 week course having joined us in April. For his first project he made a writing box in walnut, beech and leather.

Neil Davies

Neil is with us for 50 weeks and is about halfway through his course. His box was made in wenge and pau ameeillo.

Tip of the Week

This week's tip is something we use day to day but if you haven't had any training in woodworking then it may be something you haven't come across before.

If you dent your work then it is easily repairable with a damp rag and an iron.

Simply wet the rag (which need to be clean otherwise you'll be having other issues!), not so it's absolutely dripping but don't wring it out, place it over the dent and hold the iron on top.

As long as there are no broken fibres in the grain the dent should lift out. For big dents it may not get rid of it entirely but will certainly help, especially if you repeat the process.

Artist of the Month

This time we have chosen Ai Weiwei, a chinese contemporary artist who works mainly in sculpture and installations.

Item of Deisre

Mysterious Automatic Double Axis Tourbillon Watch

Follow the link for a video about the watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_QIhOkJ4_4

Sorry it's been so long since the last blog, we've been extremely busy and I've been on site for the last couple of weeks!

Danny

October 50 Week Course Space Available 12/09/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 06:40:00 +0000

October Space Available

We still have one space left for our October intake of 50 week students for which Marc is offering a discount and a free set of tools. If it's something you've been considering then now is the time to get involved! Marc is also offering the chance to win a two day course at the studio. All you need to do to enter is subscribe to this blog!

Please ring for details:

http://www.marcfish.co.uk/contact.htm

Tip of the Week

To glue up mitres on smaller items like boxes or the desk sets we made a few weeks ago, we make up small 45 degree blocks to clamp across the joints rather than using something like band clamps. We usually use super glue to glue the blocks to the components and chisel them off afterwards. The problem with this method is that even when taking care when removing the blocks, the glue can still tear out the grain so we came up with a way to avoid this.

Glue the blocks to 2mm MDF which has been cut to slightly shorter in length than your box sides.

Clamp the MDF in the middle to each component to stop it slipping, and then clamp across the mitres. If you are making a batch of boxes then the jigs will make life a bit easier!

Artist of the Month

This month we have chosen Marc's favourite architect, Pierre Chareau. He was an almost unknown french architect/designer in the 1920s. He designed furniture as well as buildings and had a keen interest in mechanical engineering which comes across in his work. See the pictures below of his masterpiece 'La Maison de Verre'.

Tool Review

Every so often we are sent new tools to test out and possibly review for F&C magazine, but they don't like to print bad reviews so in this new section we will give you the honest truth about what tools you should and shouldn't buy. We'll kick things off with something good...

Recently Marc bought a piercing saw made by an American company called Knew Concepts. They have brought out a range of saws, with prices varying from about £55 to £176 (steep, I know...). The cheaper end of the range have aluminium frames while the more expensive ones are made from titanium in a "bird cage" construction. All the frames are extremely rigid which translates well to the blade tension.

I dusted off my old piercing saw (which hasn't seen any use since my first year of college) to compare with the Knew Concepts saws. Upon first picking up one of these state-of-the-art saws, the difference in balance was immediately apparent. They are extremely lightweight in comparison to my clunky, top-heavy £20 piece of rubbish and require no effort to hold at the right angle.

All the saws take standard length blades which are held in place with blade clamps.The quick release tensioning system is a welcome change from the usual method of changing the blade. It makes things quick and easy and even has a screw for fine tension adjustment.

The blade slots into the blade clamps

The quick release lever detensioned

There are only two downsides we can come up with for these saws: The thread for the fine adjust could be about 2mm longer. We found that unless the blade is placed perfectly between the blade clamps then there is not enough thread for the fine adjust screw. The price is also an issue, but then we all know cheap tools are a false economy. If you use a piercing saw day in day out then there should be no question that this is the tool for you.

You can buy Knew Concepts saws from Workshop Heaven.

Item of Desire

Marc came across a video of the Marunaka 'Supersurfacer', a Japanese planing machine that works slightly differently to the ones we are used to...follow the link to check out the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaClhzlpc_0

Thanks for checking us out,

Danny

Nautilus III Sale 16/08/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 10:39:00 +0000

Nautilus III

As if we weren't happy enough with the sale of Babel at Masterpiece, we have had an order for the third Nautilus coffee table. The commission is for an interior design company across the pond and may be made in different veneers to the usual sycamore and walnut (depending on their veneer choice...). As you can imagine, it is brilliant news for the studio and will hopefully raise our profile, now we just have to make the thing!

Desk Sets

As I mentioned last time, we had a commission for a pen pot and a notepad holder for a London client. I finished making them this week and Chris is currently finishing them with lacquer. As they are so small, the job was pretty much all done by hand which gave me an opportunity to use some skills I haven't used since my first year at college!

Chris spraying the lacquer finish

Tip of the Week

The tip this week is for making curved templates. We usually use 2mm or 3mm MDF to make our templates because it is quicker to sand than thicker material and it's cheap so if you make a mistake then throw it in the bin and start again. Our tip, however, is to use a piece of flexiply with abrasive paper fixed at each end with double-sided tape to sand the template to your pencil line. This way it will sand more evenly, taking out all the high spots to leave you with a perfectly smooth curve.

Follow the link below to see me making a template for a chair leg former:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASdc3kTYaSk&feature=youtu.be

Item of Desire

If you've got £1100 to spend on a tool (which I don't) then this is the one to buy. To be honest, any Bridge City tool would be welcome in my tool collection..

Artist of the Month

This time I have chosen sculptor Janet Echelman as our artist of the month. I came across her when looking for interesting TED talks, I've posted a link below to her talk for you to view at your leisure.

Follow the link to watch her TED talk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YekkGz1E2k

That's all this time, check back in a couple of weeks!

Danny

Goodwood Sculpture Park Visit 02/08/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 10:34:00 +0000

Goodwood Sculpture Park

Yesterday morning Marc, myself and the students set sail in the direction of Chichester to visit the Goodwood Sculpture Park. I would thoroughly recommend going, it was a brilliant day out! The works are dotted around a woodland area and are all placed perfectly so you approach them from the right angle. See some of my personal favourites below...

Steam Bending Course

We still have a couple of spaces available for our one day steam bending course on the 14th August with Charlie Whinney. Charlie is a master of steam bending whose work ranges from large sculptural pieces to small everyday objects. There really is no one better to learn this incredible skill from so get in touch and book yourself in!

http://www.charliewhinney.com

Desk Sets

You may remember last year I posted about a commission for desk sets including pen holders, document trays, blotter wheels, and note pad holders for a client in London. They got in touch recently and ordered another pen pot and notepad holder in macassar ebony and Marc has kindly entrusted me with the task of making them.

Tip of the Week

As I mentioned last time, we have added a couple of new sections to the blog. Tip of the week will be a regular occurrence and as we like to experiment a lot here I'm hoping our tips will be something you may not have come across before.

Our first tip is to keep animal glue in plastic syringes for fine work and small repairs. It's handy to have on hand as it avoids the process of having to heat the pot and fill the workshop with that smell we all hate (except Isobel the dog), and when needed, simply put the syringe into hot water to heat the glue and you're good to go. It even acts as a cleaner way of dispensing the glue!

Artist of the Month

This month was Marc's turn to pick an artist and he settled on Peter Burke, the sculptor responsible for his favourite piece from Goodwood yesterday.

www.peterburke.co.uk

Item of Desire

For our first item of desire Marc has chosen the Phantom Corsair. It was a prototype built in 1938, and designed by Rust Heinz. Due to the futuristic look it was considered ahead of it's time but unfortunately never went into production. There are plenty of images on google so have a look for yourself!

That's it for this week, have a good weekend!

Danny

Babel Sale 19/07/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:37:00 +0000

Babel Sale

Babel went on display at the recent Masterpiece exhibition in London on Todd Merrill's stand along with other artists' work from his gallery. Masterpiece is held at the Royal Hospital grounds in Chelsea and showcases the very best of art, antiques, design and sculpture. Held annually it has become the place to purchase the very best high calibre works. We are delighted to announce that Babel was sold to a corporate client from Oxford who returned on the last day after seeing it earlier in the week. The cabinet is the first edition of five and others can be commissioned through Marc's website.

www.marcfish.co.uk

Course Spaces

We have a limited number of spaces left for October 2013 - 50 week course, and January 2014 - 12 week course. If it's something you have been "thinking" about then make it happen and get in touch! You can read ex students' testimonials here.

New Website

Marc and his partner Ness have put in the hours recently making a brand spanking new website which I think absolutely looks the part. There are more pictures of current and past work, plenty of information about 'robinson house studio' and the courses, and a large section on student work.

We are also changing the blog slightly in conjunction with the new website. As things are so busy here the blog often gets put on hold for a few weeks but we will be doing it every fortnight from now on. The "Artist of the Week" section will become "Artist of the Month", and we are adding a couple of new sections: "Tip of the Week" (or fortnight), and "Item of Desire". The latter will include anything from furniture/sculpture/architecture to materials/machines/tools, basically anything we think is cool and feel everyone should know about! We will also try and do some "how to" videos every now and then for you to try at home.

Ex Student in Employment

Congratulations are in order for ex 50 week student Luke Olney who only left us a couple of months ago and has now found employment! He is working for Tree Coutre, a small company based in London; follow the link below to have a look at their website. Also see some of Luke's work below that he produced during his time with us.

Coffee table - walnut

Sideboard - walnut, rippled sycamore

http://treecouture.co.uk/index.php

Student Work

Darren Hancock

Box - cherry, bronze and leather

Chris Coane

Desk - ebonised oak, copper

Chair - sapele

Thibaut Degenne

Cigar humidor - sonokeling rosewood, ebony, glass, spanish cedar, pau ameeillo

Kris Lamba

Coffee table - imbuia, rippled sycamore, bronze

Luke Humphrey

Box - ebony, glass

Mollusque at Art Southampton

The return of Mollusque to the UK is imminent with Art Southampton now just a week away. Once again, Mollusque will form part of Todd Merrill's stand along with the other artists and makers.

New Employee

Well, not an entirely new employee but I have now finished my apprenticeship and am now working full time at 'robinson house studio'. I am working on a few small commissions for Marc which are ideal projects for me to practise my making skills, and I will post the progress so you can see more of the commercial side of things here. I also hope to have some pictures of my work from my three years of training in a few months time which I'm sure (I hope) you would all love to see on here!

I think that just about covers it for this week, enjoy the sunshine!

Danny

Mollusque in Boston 07/06/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:55:00 +0000

Mollusque at "Furniture with Soul II"

Recently, Mollusque left the comfort of Todd Merrill's shop in New York and flew to Boston to go on display at Gallery Naga. The exhibition being held at the gallery is displaying the work of makers featured in David Savages book "Furniture with soul". Some of the finest furniture makers in the world are displaying their work including Joseph Walsh, Tom Loeser, Yuri Kobayashi, and Waywood.

http://www.gallerynaga.com/

"Babel" Progress

The new cabinet we are making, now titled "Babel", is nearing completion. Marc sprayed the doors and spine at the weekend and we have been experimenting with different methods of polishing and patinating to give the bronze an interesting finish.

Artist's Open House Festival

Thank you to everyone who made it to our Open House exhibition, each weekend was a success and we feel we have spread the word of the studio even further. We were even featured in the Artist's Open House blog, written by Emily Kenneally, who gave us a glowing review! Follow the link below to have a read.

http://artistsopenhouses.tumblr.com/

London Trip

A few weeks back Marc took the students to The Big Smoke yet again for a fun-filled day of design inspiration. "Collect" was back on at the Saatchi gallery, which always has a huge and eclectic range of work from furniture to glassware, and ceramics to jewellery. If you have never been to Collect then I strongly recommend going next year!

After Collect, we wondered over to the Design Museum where the current exhibition (open till July 7th) was Designs of the Year. The winner of the furniture category was German designer Konstantin Grcic with his Medici Chair.

Student Projects

Thibaut (50 week student)

50 week student Thibaut is currently working on his first project - a cigar humidor box. He has used Rosewood for the outside and Ceder for the inside. It's currently clamped up so I will post a picture next week.

Juergen (50 week student)

For Juergens first project (the box project), he has bought the root of a Corsican Pine tree from tree surgeons Tree's A Crowd. His idea is to suspend a box in the middle of the root by chains or steel wire. I'm very interested to see how it turns out!

Climbing

Indoor rock climbing has become a popular extra-curricular activity among the students since Marc started going a few months ago. On Mondays they go to one in Brighton and on Wednesdays they travel to Crowborough. I myself haven't been yet, despite Marc's nagging, but may give in soon as they all seem to thoroughly enjoy it!

http://boulderbrighton.com/

Sorry it's been so long since the last blog, every year the festival seems to take over our lives...We have lots planned for the summer so do follow our progress!

Enjoy your weekend in the sun,

Danny

Rod Wales Trip 26/04/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:48:00 +0000

Rod Wales Visit

Last week Marc and the students ventured to Chiddingly near Lewes to visit Rod Wales's workshop. Wales and Wales was set up by Rod and his wife Alison over 30 years ago and have since built themselves an enviable reputation with some of their work having been acquired by national collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Crafts Council.

Rod's cabinet that now resides at the V&A Museum

Rod took the students on a tour of his studio followed by a talk on his background, experiences with clients and his views on the industry. The afternoon culminated in a discussion on design. A debate ensued on design identity, the importance to critic your own and others work, to question everything you see.

http://www.walesandwales.com/

Cabinet Progress

We have made a lot of progress on the cabinet since we last updated you - Chris has almost finished veneering both doors and is sculpting the base and spine, Marc has finished making the aluminium hinges and I have begun carving the grooves into the veneers to give it a texture similar to Nautilus and Mollusque.

It is likely that the latest piece (yet to be titled) will be unveiled at Masterpiece in June. It will be represented by Todd Merrill from New York. Masterpiece is London's premier art design and antiques fair held annually in June.

Masterpiece 2012

Brighton Open House Festival

As you will probably know, Marc opens the workshop to the public for three weekends in May as part of the Brighton Open House Festival. In previous years, we have always put down our tools for two days and turned the workshop into a gallery but this year bench space members and students will be working while visitors wander around. We thought it'd be interesting for people to see the processes and work that go into making a piece of furniture rather than just seeing the finished piece.

We will be open on the following days:

11th & 12th May

18th & 19th May

25th & 26th May

Please feel free to pop in and see us!

http://www.aoh.org.uk/May-2013-home

Artist of the Week

This week Marc has chosen Japanese installation artist Chiharu Shiota as his artist of the week. Her work is somewhat haunting yet extremely stunning so check her out and see what you think!

http://www.chiharu-shiota.com/

Have a pleasant weekend!

Danny

Mollusque At Zona Maco 10/04/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:17:00 +0000

Mollusque

Mollusque, which has been with Todd Merrill in New York at his gallery, is now being exhibited at Zona Maco, a contemporary art fair in Mexico. It is regarded as the most important contemporary art exhibition in Latin America and they expect to have over 35,000 attendees over the week.

http://www.zonamaco.com/

New 50 Week Students

Martin, Neil, Chris, Juergen and Brian joined 'robinson house studio' this week to embark on their 50 week furniture making courses with Marc. So far, as with all new students, they have been tuning their hand planes and are now looking at sharpening their chisels and plane irons. As always we will be blogging their progress over the year!

12 Week Student Projects

We recently said goodbye to our 12 week students Charlie, Ola, Alexis and Duncan but not before getting some pictures of the work they did in their time here.

A game made by Charlie using walnut and satinwood veneer

Charlie's bike rack in walnut and olive ash

Stacking boxes made by Ola using walnut and ash

Console table in walnut and glass made by Duncan

Two Day Spindle Moulding Course

As you may already know, Marc runs a weekend course on spindle moulding. The spindle moulder is an extremely versatile machine and two days will only cover the basics but once you get to know it, it can be a very useful addition to any workshop. Marc went through the two day course with all our current students, covering how to set up fences and guards, different cutter blocks, rebating, tongue and groove, chamfering, tenoning, using the power feed and using jigs to create curved work.

If you are interested in the spindle moulding course then please do get in touch!

Artist of the Week

This week I have chosen to share with you the work of McNabb & Co who have created a series of cityscapes "sketched" with a bandsaw.

Thanks for checking us out, more next week

Danny

'robinson house studio' blog 15/03/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:42:00 +0000

Student Work

50 week students Jack, Thibaut and Darren are currently designing and starting to make their box projects. Darren has been toying with ideas of different textures and colours to use on the side of his, and has been experimenting on some small samples using bleaching, ebonising, chip carving, grooving and different finishes. Each sample is made from English cherry.

Darren is also considering using bronze on the inside of his box, but to take some of the shine off it, he has used liver of sulphur to create a patina on the surface.

Bauhaus Chess Board

Part-time bench space member Darcy is making a Bauhaus style chess board, for which the lid is a replica of a Sandor Bortnyik painting made using marquetry. Bortnyik had a huge impact on Hungarian poster art, and after spending some time at Weimar, the first of three Bauhaus schools, he was heavily influenced by their geometric forms.

New Cabinet

Chris has started to rough shape the spine for Marc's latest project using an electric planer. The pencil line indicates the sculpted shape you will see from the front. The next stage will be to shape it using a specialised attachment for the angle grinder.

Courses Available

There is now only a few spaces left for the 50 week course starting in October, and only one space available for the 12 week course in July!

However there are still plenty of weekend courses available:

- CAD advanced class one week
August 2013
- Art Class 2 day
dates TBA, please email Marc if interested.
- Spindle moulding 2 day
9 - 10 November 2013
- Laminating 2 day
22 - 23 June 2013
- Introduction to hand tools for furniture making 2 day
14-15 September 2013
- Wood machining 2 day
16 - 17 March 2013
- Wood finishing 2 day
19 -20 October
- Dovetails 2 day
~~13 - 14 April 2013~~ Fully Booked
- Routers, routing and router tables 2 day
7 - 8 December 2013

Artist Of The Week

If you haven't heard of surrealist photographer Chema Madoz then we highly recommend that you check out some of his work!

More next week, have a good weekend!

Danny

Yannick Chastang Visit 01/03/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Yannick Chastang Visit

Yannick is one of the country's leading marquetry speacialists. He studied cabinetmaking and marquetry for six years in France at Ecole Boulle before moving to the UK in 1997. He set up his company, Yannick Chastang Limited, in 2003.

Last week Marc took our students to Faversham to visit him...

Upon entering his immaculately clean workshop it is apparent that Yannick likes things to be a certain way, which is reflected in the meticulous work he produces.

Yannick using a machine called a "Donkey" used for cutting veneers.

To see more of Yannick's work, fllow the link below to his website:

http://www.yannickchastang.com/

Student Work

Chris Coane

A while ago we showed you 50 week student Chris's desk maquettes:

Chris wanted his desk to be black so chose to use oak which can be easily ebonised. One of the most effetive ways to ebonise wood is to make a solution using acetic acid (vinegar) and wire wool. The wire wool is dissolved in the acetic acid for a few days and any remaining wire wool is strained out. Oak is extremely rich in tannins which react with iron and turn the wood black.

Chris is currently making the drawer for his desk, after which he will begin the ebonising process.

Luke Humphrey

Luke has finished his ebony jewellery box, and although it looks simple, it was extremely difficult to make due to the angled front and back components. Luke chose to use dark red, textured glass for the inside base as opposed to the usual leather or suede used in most jewellery boxes.

Luke will be starting a table in walnut and sycamore next week so watch this space!

Luke Olney

Luke has now finished his 50 week course with Marc but has decided to stay on at 'robinson house studio' to finish his walnut cabinet. He has finished the main carcass an is currently working on the doors. More pictures to come...

New Marc Fish Cabinet

Chris has made more progress since last week on the spine of the cabinet into which the doors will be hinged. The spine is made from maple but will be finished in a Vero Metal spray finish after being sculpted using a chainsaw, angle grinder and orbital sanders.

A slot at the back of the spine for a hinge

Artist of the week

One of Marc's personal favourites at the moment is sculptor Michael Johansson so we thought we'd share with you a few photos:

For more pictures visit his website:

www.michaeljohansson.com/

Have a good weekend!

Danny

'robinson house studio' London Trip 20/02/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:37:00 +0000

V&A Museum

In December last year the V&A Museum opened their new furniture gallery featuring works by Thomas Chippendale, Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ron Arad, Jasper Morrison, Eileen Gray and Michael Thonet, to name but a few. The exhibition tells the story of furniture through the ages, exploring the progression of design as well as the development of techniques in construction.

The display down the centre of the room focused on the furniture timeline whilst around sides of the room the pieces were grouped according to the techniques used, ie. veneering and marquetry, upholstery etc. Dotted here and there are also displays dedicated to prolific designers like Frank Lloyd Wright and Michael Thonet.

Page Lacquer

After a spot of pizza for lunch we made our way over to Page Lacquer who specialise in polyester lacqer finishing. We were shown around by Juliet Page, one of the directors, who explained the processes involved in lacquering. They have a huge range available - approximately five thousand different finishes, and even make some of the furniture they spray.

My favourite part of what they do is the emphasis on experimentation. Everyone in the workshop is encouraged to use any free time they have to experiment with new ideas, colours and textures, and if a client has an idea that is different to any of their pre-existing finishes, they will strive to come up with something that fits the bill.

http://www.pagelacquer.co.uk/

Marc Fish Latest Piece

The as yet untitled cabinet we are making is back in full swing. I spent last week applying 3 or 4 coats of polyester primer which needed to be sanded back in between coats and any remaining small holes filled.

Chris then sanded the whole former to 1500 grit before polishing. Polishing the former enables the fiberglass doors to come away from it after the glue has set.

We marked out the datum lines using masking tape as a pen or pencil won't show up on black gloss.

After that, the former was finished and we could begin fiberglassing the doors.

Once the epoxy resin goes off, the door can then be cut into the desired shape!

In the next few days we will be laying up the second door and after that we can begin laying veneers over the fiberglass in the same fashion as Mollusque.

Inspiration of the week

Each week we will be adding a new inspirational section to the blog. We will post photos, furniture, buildings, art, anything that catches our eye and inspires us.

To kick it off I'd like to share my personal favourite, and also one of Marc's favourites from the V&A trip - The Fractal Table made in resin using 3D printing technology. The link below the photo is to a video of how it was made so do check it out!

http://vimeo.com/54023876

More to come next week

Danny

Barnsley Workshop Visit 11/01/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:59:00 +0000

Barnsley Workshop Visit

Every year Marc organises a trip for the students to visit the Barnsley workshop, located in a rural, picturesque part of Hampshire. It is an excellent opportunity for them to see some of the finest furniture in the country in the process of being made.

James Ryan, the workshop manager and designer, is always very welcoming as he takes the students around the workshop.

The workshop was set up in 1923 by Edward Barnsley, whose father Sidney and uncle Ernest Barnsley were key players in the Arts and Crafts Movement. The workshop has always emphasised the importance of attention to detail and the furniture they produce is some of the most well crafted in the world.

http://www.barnsley-furniture.co.uk/

Glue Experimenting

The students also had two days of learning about various types of glue this week. After a comprehensive lesson from Marc they set to experimenting with epoxy resin, urea formaldehyde, Titebond, PVA, hide glue, super glue and using pigment to tint epoxy and UF.

Harewood testing

For the last couple of day I have been testing the effects of iron sulphate on various veneers. Iron sulphate reacts with tannins in the timber and changes the colour to grey, blue or black. Oak, which has a high tannin content will go almost entirely black, whereas most pale timbers will go a silvery grey colour. It is extremely easy to do so have a go yourself. You can get iron sulphate from most garden centres, just mix 4 tsp with two pints of water, pour into a tray and soak the veneer in the solution. The picture below shows the effects on rippled sycamore, curly maple and figured douka.

More next week!

Danny

Posted with Blogsy

Happy New Year from 'robinson house studio' 04/01/13

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:48:00 +0000

New year, new students

This week we welcome four new 12 week students into the workshop: Alexis, Charles, Duncan And Ola. As always we will be posting their progress for you to follow.

Course dates and prices

Before Christmas I posted the new courses Marc will be running this year, and we can now announce the dates, prices and availability.

Please note that courses will be charged at 2012 prices if you sign up BEFORE THE END OF JANUARY (12 week - £5900, 50 week - £16000)

Long course intakes and 2013 prices

12 week course start date - ONE SPACE LEFT FOR 2013 / 15 July / £6500

50 week course start date / 7 October / £17000

Short course dates

CAD beginners class 1 week / February & August / £550

CAD advanced class 1 week / February & August / £550

Art class 2 days / please email or call for availability / £250

One week taster or bespoke week / please email or call for availability / £600

Weekend course dates

Wood machining / 16 - 17 March / £275

Dovetailing / 13 - 14 April / £275

Laminating / 22 - 23 June / £275

Introduction to furniture making using hand tools / 14 - 15 September / £275

Wood finishing / 19 - 20 October / £275

Spindle moulding / 9 - 10 November / £275

Routers, routing and router tables / 7 - 8 December / £275

New and improved library

About 18 months ago I built a new bookcase for our office library which we rapidly outgrew and so just before Christmas Marc asked me to make a new one. The library is an important part of 'robinson house studio', providing student with a plethora of books on furniture makers, design, art, architecture, woodwork techniques, materials and even business and marketing.

Student panel gauges

50 week students Jack, Darren and Thibaut have begun their panel gauges, another exercise in accuracy and hand skills but also introducing the router table to cut a rebate. For those that don't know, a panel gauge is used to mark a line on the face of a panel using the rebate to run along the edge of the panel to keep it square, similar to a marking gauge but on a larger scale. It is also a small exercise in design as they design the stock (or handle) themselves and make a model of it in blue foam before starting.

Latest piece progress

Due to the recent commission for desk sets, the new cabinet we are making had to be put on hold. We began production again on it this week and have begun fibreglassing the former as you can see in the picture. It needs two layers of fibreglass before we can start sanding it completely smooth.

Merry Christmas To All! 14/12/12

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Finished Student Pieces

As 50 week student Luke Olney is now coming to the end of his course I thought we'd show off some the work he has produced during his time with us. For his first project he made a jewellery box in bog oak (5,000 year old wood preserved in a bog) with a sycamore interior. It looks deceptively simple and was actually quite a complicated piece to make due to the curved front and tapered sides.

For his third piece he wanted to try laminating and so came up with this elegant design for a guitar stand in sycamore, brass and leather.

Chris has also now finished his jewellery box in wenge, aluminium and suede. He is now working on a desk and I will be posting pictures soon.

New Shelves

Now, I know new shelves doesn't sound like the most exciting news but we like new things here at 'robinson house studio', and we think our new shelves look amazing! Marc bought some acrylic already cut to width. polished the edges and I installed them onto the glass wall in our office. As you can see, Marc has already filled them up with samples, shells and anything that may inspire us.

This will be the last blog till we are back in the the new year so we wish you a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. Don't drink too much and I hope Santa brings you some nice new tools!

Danny

New Furniture Making Courses For 2013 - 07/12/12

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:19:00 +0000

New Courses For 2013

We have a range of new courses for next year why not take the plunge and experience the world of furniture making. Dates will be on the website soon.

Wood Machining - 2 day course NEW
Spindle Moulding - Course 2 day
Laminating - 2 day
Furniture Making Introduction - 2 days or 5 days
Computer Aided Design - 5 days
Drawing and Water Colour - 2 days
Dovetails - 2 days NEW
Finishing - 2 days NEW

We have been booking well into 2013 for sometime and only have limited space left. We have one space available for 50 week course starting April 2013 and spaces available for October 2013. Only two spaces are available for 12 week course starting in July 2013.

New Taster Week Course - Furniture Making Introduction

Why not book into our one week taster course, this is a great step into the world of contemporary fine furniture. Are you thinking this is something you would like to pursue? Fancy a change in your life? Want to train in one of the UK's most progressive, innovative studios? Well this is your opportunity, we have flexible dates throughout 2013. Cover basics or cover some advance subject you can decide and we can plan something around your requirements. Cost is £600 and if you decided to do a longer course after your week then we will refund the week's course fees against your longer course.

Student Work

50 week student Luke Olney chose to make a guitar stand for one of his projects and has spent the last couple of days sewing leather around the brass rods on which the guitar will sit. He is gluing the rods into the stand as I type this so we will have pictures of the finished piece next week.

Recent Commission

For the past few weeks Chris has been working on a commission we took on to make some desk sets. The sets are for a client who has just bought an extremely expensive apartment in London and will match the desks that were made by another company. We made pen pots, notepad holders, document trays and blotter wheels as you can see in the picture. All the items have now gone off to be sprayed with lacquer before we fit leather bases.

That's all for this week, have a good weekend!

Danny

Robb Report Singapore 30/11/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Robb Report Singapore

About a month ago we mentioned that Nautilus II was set to appear in the Robb Report Singapore, a magazine aimed at the 'super-rich'. They gave Marc a double page spread with a short bio briefly explaining the idea and inspiration behind the coffee table.

Art Class

Making furniture is not always entirely about woodworking skills, there are many other skills that need to be acquired along the way. In addition to CAD courses, design history lessons and business lectures, Marc provides the students with a two day art course with Ruth Garrett, a local architectural watercolour artist. Ruth teaches the students key techniques for sketching, drawing and painting with watercolours, all of which are important skills to have when presenting drawings and ideas to a potential client. These classes are available to non-students, details can be found on the website www.marcfish.co.uk

Student Work

Our students have been learning how to bleach timber this week using A and B bleach, caustic soda, lemon juice and cream of tartar. After experimenting with different methods of application and varied drying times everyone concluded that A and B bleach is undeniably the best!

50 week student Thibaut is making good progress and has just finished his through-wedged mortise and tenons.

Kris has started making two Fender Telecaster replicas as a side project while he is making his coffee table.

Art Nouveau Chair

With the students busy with the art class, Marc took the opportunity to continue with the Hector Guimard chair. Some components are now glued up and Marc has begun shaping and carving the details on the front legs using rasps, carving chisels and abrasive paper.

Sorry it's been so long since the last blog, we've been extremely busy! More next week,

Danny

Timber Yard Visit 02/11/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:16:00 +0000

Timber Yard Trip

When new students are about a month or so into their course Marc takes them on a day out to a few timber yards. The first stop of the day is usually at English Woodland Timber where they have a vast collection of European and North American hardwoods. English Woodland Timber is generally where we go for most of our timber. Apart from being one of the closest timber yards to us, they have huge amounts of the timbers most commonly used in furniture such as oak, walnut, cherry, maple etc all in a large variety of sizes and they often have whole trees which allows us to select sequential boards. They also allow us to enter the kilns and explain to the students the process of kiln drying timber. The next timber yard we stop at before lunch is

WL Wests and Sons, which is not dissimilar to English Woodlands in the wood they sell but they do have a nice little shop where you can pick up interesting books, tools or interesting pieces of wood.

After a spot of lunch, we head up to Tonbridge to visit Timberline, a place that specialises in exotic hardwoods. All kinds of rosewood and ebony are available as well as wenge, purpleheart, rippled sycamore, mahogany and many more that I don't even know how to spell. It is here that students usually end up spending more than they intended as it's so easy to get drawn in by all the beautiful timbers on offer. The owner, Robert has a vast knowledge of timber and is always very forthcoming when we visit.

The timber yard trip is always a good day out, despite being somewhat cold, and the students get a chance to learn about the process of selecting the right timber for the job, how timber is stored and dried, and have a chance to familiarise themselves with some timbers that you don't see every day. Pub lunch is also a welcome stop.

www.englishwoodlandstimber.co.uk/

www.wlwest.co.uk/

www.exotichardwoods.co.uk/

New Thicknesser

Our new thicknesser finally arrived on Wednesday! Digital rise and fall, variable speed, maximum width of 530mm, maximum cut depth of 6mm, four knives and a sectional infeed roller for boards of varied sizes. We've only had it two days and we are already feeling the benefits.

Finishing

Thus week the students have been experimenting with different finishing techniques using Osmo oil, Tung oil, Danish oil, Sam Maloof solution, Kiel's wax and Renaissance wax. By dividing up pieces of wood with masking tape you can apply the various oils and waxes to compare the effects each one has on a variety of timbers.

Darren applying oil to his samples

Art Nouveau Chair Project

Marc's side project is starting to take shape now and is almost ready to glue up. He has roughly cut the shapes of the legs, rails and crest rail which will all be carved by hand once the components are glue together.

Student Projects

Well done to 50 week student Kris who has now finished his two jewellery boxes in Madagascan rosewood and aluminium!

Have a good weekend, more next week.

Danny

Richard Williams Seminar 23/10/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Fish) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:11:00 +0000

Richard Williams Visit

One of the benefits available to students on Marc Fish's furniture making courses is the opportunity to learn from other prolific furniture makers. Every few months Marc invites a guest speaker to give a seminar on their particular field of expertise and to talk about their own businesses and experiences of the industry. Over the last year we have had Charlie Whinney, Yannick Chastang, Rod Wales and this week we welcomed Richard Williams to 'robinson house studio'.

In the morning Richard talked to the students about his business and how he got started in the industry. In 1990 he set up his first workshop with what he describes as 'a bench, a few tools and plenty of youthful optimism'. From there his business has grown along with his client base and he now has a team of craftsmen making his contemporary designs. Last year Richard moved into his 'dream workshop', a converted barn in the picturesque countryside of Buckinghamshire, with ample space for machines - the envy of any cabinetmaker, myself included.

Richard's spacious workshop

For a number of years Richard was a visiting lecturer at Bucks College, speaking on business issues relating specifically to the furniture industry. For the second half of the day with us, Richard focused on this subject, offering students advise and information essential to starting up a business or workshop as a maker. The students put him through his paces asking plenty of questions to get as much as they could out of him while the opportunity was there.

http://www.richardwilliamsfurniture.com/

To see more pictures check out 50 week student Thibaut's blog: http://bosphorecraftsanddesign.tumblr.com/

Latest Marc Fish Piece

The former I am making for Marc's newest piece of furniture is really starting to take shape. Up until now we have only had models and drawings to aid our imaginations but we can now get a true idea of the size and proportions of the real thing. We tried a few different techniques to shape the blue foam - using a hot wire and a sureform proved to be much too slow - and have found that the best way was to cut most of the waste off with a handsaw, then take it down further with the belt sander before smoothing with an orbital sander to achieve the the surface we want. Once I have finished shaping the former, Marc will then begin the process of fiber glassing it.

Student work

New starters Thibaut, Jack and Darren have almost finished their winding sticks and are now applying a few cots of Osmo oil.

Kris and Chris have almost finished their jewellery boxes and have made maquettes for their next projects. Kris will make a coffee table in imbuia and Chris is making a desk in scorched oak. You can get an idea from the pictures what the final pieces will look like.

Thanks for checking us out, more next week!

Danny