Some recent class notes

In the past month or so I've been  teaching on my home turf and away.

In early March I traveled to the Woodcraft in Norfolk, Va.on the invitation of Steve Houmis, an employee, cabinetmaker and class director of the store. We spent 4 days building a small 18th century case in order to learn the basics of early case construction.Thanks to Steve for the photo. Lots of fun with some great woodworkers and all around nice guys. I'll be going back in the Fall for more fun building a dwarf clock. Check the Norfolk Woodcraft for details.

Last week was spent at the Marc Adams School in Indiana teaching the basics of carving with a cartouche project. We started out with a nice Philadelphia cartouche, did some c-scrolls and acanthus practice and then finished up with a small cartouche that I designed for the class. A great group of willing victims for my 18th. century design propaganda.

This week at The Breed School, my home turf, we're building a copy of a Joshua Wilder dwarf tall clock. We started out with some dovetailing and joinery on the bottom box, moved on to the construction of the hood and are now veneering the door and bottom box. This is a really good all-around-useful-stuff class incorporating the use of lots of hand tools, hide glue and plenty of handy tricks with scrapers, ruffle irons and other deadly trifles like big chisels and heat guns. A very cool clock to have if you don't have a tall landing or stair hall to erect a full sized clock. Check the classes section for new classes as they get posted. Seymour work table and carving weekends are in the works.-Al