Newsletter: November 2013
James Mursell
Welcome!
With just 5 weeks until Christmas there is just time to get one more newsletter in before the New Year!
I hope you will find something of interest below. If you are local, please come to the Sussex Guild show at Midhurst at the end of the month – print out free tickets; be inspired by the application of new technology to Windsor chairs – print them out too!; if you fancy a chance to do something worthwhile with a sibling or parent then follow in Alasdair and Bryan’s footsteps………….
Best wishes
James
2014 Chairmaking Course Dates – download a brochure
I have just posted course dates through to June next year on the website and to go with that there is a new brochure that can be downloaded.
If you have already taken a couple of courses at The Windsor Workshop and are considering another, please feel free to contact me to discuss chair options. Although I classify my 5-day courses as either double-bow or continuous-arm, there is always room for more experienced makers to make something different. Bar stools have been particularly popular recently – see ‘Father and Son’
Vouchers for Courses
Nearly 50% of students come on courses as a result of a gift and with Christmas around the corner it’s a good time to remind you that I can offer vouchers tailor-made to the individual. Vouchers can be undated, or for specific courses and you can pay either the deposit or the full amount. I will email you a voucher with the name of the recipient and details of what is being given.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if this is of interest.
Sussex Guild Show: 30 Nov/1 Dec Midhurst - Download Free Tickets!
The final Guild show of the year is always at Midhurst and for the second year running is in the new school: Midhurst Rother College. Apart from an opportunity to see the 49 craftspeople exhibiting wonderful items that could solve Christmas presents problems, it is worth coming to see just what a brand new school can look like. Lucky kids to have the facilities!
If you feel like coming please download a free ticket (you will need one for each person) and this will give you free entry.
You can get an idea of the range on offer by downloading a list of exhibitors.
I do hope you can make it!
Printing Windsor Chairs
Last month there was an item in the news about suspected terrorists printing a gun with a 3-D printer. This turned out to be a scare story and the suspect parts were from the printer itself!
Imagine my surprise when almost the next day I had an email from Laurence telling me about his experiments printing Windsor chairs. Laurence is an architectural model maker and attended a course last year making a double bow chair. He began by making a double bow to test the concept and then made a couple of other chairs too. He plans to develop new designs of his own using this technology.
Although I am still quite happy using pencil and paper to design my chairs I can see the advantages of his approach. The ability to view the chair from all angles is a major bonus as I have to wait until I have made the first prototype before I get the same information! A successful chair looks great from every direction, rather than just one or two, and to be able to tweak the plan on the screen first and then print it out is pure luxury!
The other bonus is that angles of all components can be taken directly from the model, so no more scale drawing or trigonometry.
Bamboo Windsors
My thanks to John for sending me a link to bamboo Windsors. Although John was not overly impressed with the chairs themselves I think it is wonderful that they can be made from such a material – they must be so light! See for yourself.
Straw Legs
If you have been receiving my newsletters for several years you may remember the Windsor with straw legs in my Spring 2012 newsletter.
Father and Son
Alasdair and his father Bryan attended a course three weeks ago and made a pair of bar stools. Here’s a picture of them in situ, but before they have been finished.
. . .
Stefan, a serial-chairmaker, came to the previous course and made a pair of bar stools too!
Down-under Woodworking
Rolf came on a course a year or so ago and is busy cabinet making back home in Australia. His firm’s newsletter includes an article on chair design that you may find interesting:
The rest of the furniture looks beautiful too!
