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It's
a lovely day and I drive in
to the workshop. Devon is
a very beautiful county of
England and one of it's most
attractive features are the
winding lanes with leafy fields
on either side. I rent a room
shared in a house with one
other student so we share
the car journey, usually getting
in around 8.30 in the morning.
Both David and Daren have
already been here from about
8 o'clock and one or two students
are already here making cups
of coffee and getting started.
I've been here nearly three
months now and I'm well on
the way with what is one of
the main teaching projects
in the first half of the year.
We started off learning how
to use planes, saws and chisels
and how to sharpen each of
these tools. Daren took us
through a whole series of
exercises cutting mitre joints
and dovetail joints and planing
to achieve exactness. All
of this made me feel much
more confident with how to
use a bench plane and how
to sharpen and use a set of
bench chisels.
It seems to be all about accuracy
and planning, cutting, marking
to a very high degree of exactness
and slowly I'm getting the
hang of doing that. I'm now
making a cabinet makers workbench
which will be the best cabinet
makers workbench in the world
. The top is maple, the legs
are Iroko and it will be made
to workshop standards infact
everything we do here is to
standard. We start off with
simple stuff then move on
to more tricky stuff when
we have got the hang of that.
I've done the morning in the
machine shop. Both David and
Daren very hot on safety and
have repeatedly shown us how
to safely operate the planer,
table saw, jointer and the
band saw. Later on in the
course they'll show us how
to use the spindle moulder,
though I've not got that far
yet.
10.30 is Dimblebie time. We
gather during the tea break
in the top workshop. There
are five bench rooms in the
main workshops and the Dimblebies
take place in the largest
and lightest room. Sometimes
it's David, sometimes it's
Daren doing the Dimblebie.
David tends to talk about
design, marketing, and business
management, and one of the
best series of Dimblebies
he's done is a series that
lasts nearly two weeks that
covered his work right from
Art School to present day
including bankruptcy and rebuilding
a business from nothing. He
uses slides to illustrate
the talk and describes the
constructional process used
in each piece of furniture
he displays. Daren talks about
technical things like veneering
or sharpening a saw, turning
a burr on a scraper. Each
Dimblebie will be specific
and exhaustive. They usually
last only about 15 or 20 minutes,
when people ask questions
they can go on a little bit
longer.
Later in the morning, had
a visit from David who is
supervising my work. We spent
about ten minutes talking
about how I was going to joint
these two pieces of wood together
to get a perfect joint. This
is a butt joint, but quite
a long one, over six feet,
and the edges of these two
boards have to perfectly match
up. They've come off the machine
ok, but David wanted me to
finely fit the joint with
a hand plane, explaining how
to slightly hollow the boards
in the centre to get a perfect
fit. Sometimes he's with me
for ten minutes, sometimes
less, sometimes there are
a group of us around the table
saw and he's with us all morning.
David or Daren or both seem
to keep an eye on me and see
what it is I've got to do
then talk me through the process.
If I need further help later
I usually go off and find
one of them, though I don't
always have to because there's
usually another student who's
started the course only three
or four months ahead of me
and their knowledge of doing
similar stuff is pretty fresh
so I may ask one of them.
We know that David and Daren
are fair game in both the
mornings and the afternoon,
but we try to let them get
on with making a bit more
in the afternoons. The workshop
officially closes at 6.30,
and the machine shop is shut
at 6 o'clock, but there seems
to be students here working
most evenings and most weekends.
The arrangement is that we
are allowed to use the facilities
of the workshop unsupervised
provided no machines and power
tools are employed. David
gets ratty if he comes in
on Monday morning and all
the milk has been drunk and
nobody has swept up, but as
long as we treat the place
properly, like our own workshop,
and lock up we're able to
get on with quite a lot of
work outside of normal workshop
hours.
One of the things I like about
this place is that although
the first few months of the
course are fairly structured
we are allowed to work at
our own pace either going
faster or slower than the
people we started with. Once
we've done the few key teaching
projects they have here, we
are encouraged to make what
pieces of furniture we would
like to do. David gets involved
then, usually on a one on
one level helping you design
furniture to include skills
that I would want to learn
and taking account of what
else is happening in the workshop.
I think the thing that makes
this place different for me
is that it's not just a teaching
workshop. There is usually
furniture being made here
that is really inspirational.
David and Daren are working
on furniture for clients and
it's fantastic to see these
world class pieces of furniture
being made while we are here.
I came here wanting to see
whether I could be more creative.
David runs an Art class on
Tuesday evenings between 5
and 7 o'clock where we do
life drawing, water-colour
painting, he talks about client
presentation drawings, perspective
and classical proportions,
all the time using his own
background and experience
to feed us with information
that hopefully will set our
businesses going off successfully
in different directions.
This is a very short year,
but it is very full. What
we get out of it I think depends
a lot on what we are prepared
to put in. This is not like
a school or a college, it's
more like a real workshop,
working for 50 weeks a year,
not 3 short ten week college
terms. A year is a very short
time to learn all of the things
involved with making furniture,
but David and Daren are here
to help us make the best of
our time in a very full and
hopefully very productive
year.
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