Contact Woodworking Movies Woodworking School Commissions Gallery Home

Hard work, often unpredictable, and not always well paid. Yet with total fullfillment, and absolute contentment, for those that stay with it.

UNIQUE LEARNING SITUATION

• EXPERIENCED teaching workshop since 1984. We know what we are doing, so you get the best information when you need it.


• RIGOUR "Like an Old Oxford College Tutorial, but for practical people. When Steve Perry puts his glasses on to examine your work that is rigorous examination."


• INDIVIDUAL not a series of "modules" but a year built around YOU, teaching one on one, what you need to know. You help us define the content of an intense year working out together what you need to learn.


• DEEP PRACTICE hand skills and methods taught that will enable you get faster with experience.


• INSPIRATION watch world class furniture being made in the same studio. See us with our clients, see how we do it, up close and personal.

Not "students", but people wanting to know, and know quickly.

Between twelve and fourteen people are here at any one time, this ensures that when you need attention, almost always you can get it on a one to one basis. It may be misleading to call these people "students" these men and women would typically be in their late twenties to early fourties and would come here as a career change. We also find many younger people are coming here rather than university, or after a university course in design to build on existing skills.

We have been running these courses since 1984

Sooooo..... by now we should really have got the hang of it. Between us we have over fifty years experience in this business and are able to make your time here really informative.

Learn how to do it well, the professional way.

Quality is what we do, you will do it too, from day one. We will teach you everything from choosing handtools to picking out wood to developing your drawings and building a portfolio of work. There are lots of courses and magazines that are great for showing you an amateur way of getting a good result. An amateur has no excuse for poor work other than lack of understanding, the amateur has all day to get it right, the professional has not. They must do it right, first time, every day.

True Skill is excellent work done quickly and efficiently.

You will not get quick in this year, but you will get good and the techniques we teach will be "short steppable ' you can speed them up as you gain confidence and so, work faster. The next two years will see you getting faster and more efficient. These are techniques that are tested in the fire of real professional workshops, you will learn the same professional methods we have used in our work for over thirty years.

Take Advantage of our Unique Guarantee.

Look at our student gallery, see the standard of work done there. We guarantee you can do that kind of work if you come here. If, after a year of solid hard work, putting in a consistant 50-60 hours a week, hours of real work not just turning up, and you are able to prove your attendance. If you have followed our advice and guidance, and you still have not achieved at least one major piece of work to that standard of making we will give you £8000 of your fees back. TELL ME WHICH COLLEGE WILL GIVE YOU YOUR COURSE FEES BACK IF THEY FAIL TO TEACH YOU PROPERLY?

Better Value Education.

Courses are costing more, you want to get better value, this is an intensive hardworking high cost high value year. If you put in the effort, you get the result. We cannot guarantee a job in a top workshop but lots of our students are in that position. We cannot be sure you will run a successful business but lots are doing just that, be we can say that nowhere else in the world has a better track record training furniture designer makers, and doing it fast.

You will not get quick in this year, but you will get good and the techniques we teach will be "short steppable ' you can speed them up as you gain confidence and so, work faster. The next two years will see you getting faster and more efficient. These are techniques that are tested in the fire of real professional workshops, you will learn the same professional methods we have used in our work for over thirty years.

• CONFIDENCE Gather confidence by doing it right, Deep Practice of key handskills.


• PROFESSIONAL Learn the dodges and secret effecient methods of the real pro, and learn how YOU can function as an "improver" inside a professional workshop.


• EARN a real job inside a top workshop as an "improver". No promises, but we have an exceptional record of helping train the next generation of makers in top workshops.


• SET YOURSELF UP IN YOUR OWN SHOP we have a growing number of successful workshops that have started as a discussion over a business plan in davids studio. You could be the next


• SHARED WORKSHOP we can introduce you to shared workshops where there are skilled makers that will rent out bench space. You need to be well trained to safely use these shared facilities so comming from Rowden Workshops is a great recommendation.

David Savage has been Making Furniture that makes his Clients Feel Special. And he has been doing it for over thirty years. Now he is showing a generation of Young Designer Makers how to do it Properly, Safely, with Style and giving you a Good Life.

You could come here not knowing which end of a chisel was the sharp end.

What matters is OOOmmph....... are you the kind of personality that can take this on and make a go of it? Will you get on with the other people in the workshop and help when somone else needs a hand with a glue up? Do you have the kind of personality that is not easily defeated or deflated. If so we may have a place for you at Rowden Workshops.

Take it at your pace, not ours

• BIZ SKILLS Learn what figures you have to measure, and keep a track on them. CONTROL the risk. Learn how to reach your customers, understand that they need to know WHY you are putting in all this special effort, if they know this they will buy into YOUR IDEALS and YOUR VALUES.


• DESIGN Learn about proportion, surface, structure. Make a piece WORTHY of all the human effort consumed in its making. Then learn about how to show this to your customer, its called your Unique Selling Proposition. You can start this process with us but it is still a life time study


• WOODWORKING TECHNIQUES Essential skills, the language of what you do, become fluent in the language ofWoodworking. At the same time also learn to SAY something worthwhile. Your skills are a passion for excellence that your customer will admire and desire as something special in a world of robot driven perfection.

It is not unusual for someone to come here with no design experience, and no woodworking experience, and no business experience. We start from the beginning, from where you are at, and build from there. If you have experience, great, we will check it out to see if the basics are sound then you will work at your own pace . If you are unsure take it steady, you are not in a competition against anyone here, just with yourself . Take your time to get it right, we will teach at your pace, not ours.

"Teaching and learning is not a top down process here, we are all learning at different levels. it is essentially the same as the experience of the Renaissance Altelier where Michelangelo learnt to paint frescos. The technology may have changed in 500 years but not the process. This is a combination of example, followed by deep practice, followed by inspirational example. Everyone learning and being inspired, by different people at different levels, from beginner, to Journeyman, to Craftsman, to Master Craftsman " David Savage

Expert Help At Hand.

 

An "Atalier." Learning by doing, a bit of theory, then you try it out......

This place, Rowden, is unusual to say the least, Rowden Workshops are special. The teaching concept is special and the place is special, it's inspiring. We are situated in the most beautiful part of English countryside. Countryside so beautiful that it would inspire a sonnet. We base our teaching systems upon a medieval teaching workshop system called an "Atalier". An Atalier would have a Master Artist or Craftsman, senior assistant craftsmen, makers, journeymen, apprentices. All would be learning at different levels at different times, and freqently learning by doing. "Let me show you this, then you try it out, see how you go, dont worry too much if that saw goes off line, watch what is happening............"

Learn from real experts who are out there doing it, not in theory, but in real life.

It's common to have pieces of work being made in workshops nearby by skilled makers some of whom we have known and worked with for many years. Occasionally we have visiting makers join us to work with David for a single project. In this case Keith was working with two students line managing a pair of complex cabinets and working with David on a new chair design.

Join us at a point in the year that suits you.

We start students every three months in February, June, September and November. This way someone is only a few months ahead of you. "Its amazing how much I have learnt in the three months since I joined, " said Jim to me recently. Also, the newcomers have someone nearby who recently has been where they are now. "I find my very best students are the ones who share their understanding freely. There is no compulsion to do it, but always the ones that share get the most out of this place. For us teaching is a way of making sense of the world. "

A Very Full Fifty Week Year. You need that time.

This is not a college or school. We are a working workshop and work for fifty weeks a year.Our teaching is based upon that year. You need every moment you can get to develop your skills and your personal aesthetic so don't settle for less.

Two great courses built around what you need.

• MAKING: Superb making skills.


• CUSTOMERS: Learn about providing genuine customer service.


• DESIGN: Develop the start of your own design skills.


• REALISM: Business realism, marketing skills, and careful costings.


• BUSINESS: Develop your personal entrepreneurial aims and objective