Upcoming Classes
Carved and Decorated Treen
The Woodworking School at Pinecroft
Berea, KY
April 5-6, 2025
Carved and decorated treen, or handmade domestic objects made of wood, have been a part of daily life for thousands of years. Whether intended for use by the maker themself or as a gift for a loved one (or, not without historical precedent, a potential loved one – romantic!), this form has endured as a way to express personal sentiment. In this class, we’ll attempt to reconcile symbolic language with the everyday object.
Though the covered concepts are adaptable to other forms, participant’s focus will be on carving one of several types of combs. Templates from historical examples will be provided, but personal design and flourish is, of course, encouraged.
We’ll explore a number of decorative elements: pierced shapes, punched motifs, carved patterns and hand lettering. Our goal will be to establish a vocabulary of our own by selecting, reinterpreting, and arranging elements that can work together.
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Introduction to Pattern Carving
Peters Valley School of Craft
May 10 – May 11, 2025
In this class, each participant will develop their own vocabulary of carved patterns. We’ll ask how to capture shadow, how to reinterpret historic (or even prehistoric) patterns, how and where to use comfortable shapes and lines, and how to compile and arrange decorative elements within the form. Using an assortment of gouges, we’ll spend time learning tool strokes and carving motifs, gaining inspiration from historic furniture, architectural carving, folk art, tattoos, plants, flowers, scaled animals, and so on.
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Introduction to Pattern Carving
North Bennet St. School
May 17 – May 18, 2025
In this class, each participant will develop their own vocabulary of carved patterns. We’ll ask how to capture shadow, how to reinterpret historic (or even prehistoric) patterns, how and where to use comfortable shapes and lines, and how to compile and arrange decorative elements within the form. Using an assortment of gouges, we’ll spend time learning tool strokes and carving motifs, gaining inspiration from historic furniture, architectural carving, folk art, tattoos, plants, flowers, scaled animals, and so on.
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Designing a Three-Legged Stool
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
June 8-13, 2025
This workshop will consider the three-legged stool as an entryway to exploring an idea. Over the course of this workshop students will dive in, whether that idea might be a design principle, decorative motif, attractive line, or a specific intention of use. Students will use traditional chairmaking tools – the froe, drawknife, and spokeshave – to split and shape components by hand from a freshly felled log. Then, by applying a combination of greenwoodworking techniques and aesthetics students will design and build their own unique stool comfortable for our bodies and functional in our daily lives. The focus of this class will be on handwork, improvisation, and intuitive craft: where do the material properties, the vocabulary of tools, and functionality meet?
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Greenwood Spoon Carving
Omega Institute
Rhinebeck, NY
Jun 29 – Jul 4, 2025
In this week-long carving course, we'll look closely at branches and trees and ask which parts might make a good spoon and why. How can we transpose a tree's idiosyncrasies and integrity into an object for daily life?
This class includes material selection and identification, knife techniques, carving ax techniques, usage of decorative motifs and symbols, and finishing processes.
The workshop is open to participants of all skill levels. This will be a physical class focusing on the meeting point of hand, eye, and material. Because we’re utilizing hand-powered tools, hand strength may be required for certain techniques.
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Greenwood Post & Rung Stool
Snow Farm
Williamsburg, MA
July 31 - August 3, 2025
Learn how to make a stool from a tree! The mechanics of this stool – post and rung joinery – were popularized by Appalachian chairmakers whose unglued work still holds tightly together hundreds of years later. Start with a straight-grained log and learn how to accurately split it into chair parts using wedges and a froe. Shave the split parts into posts and rungs on shavehorses using drawknives and spokeshaves. Finally, by leveraging compression and expansion of material students will knock together a slight but sturdy stool frame. Learn to weave a seat with shaker tape to finish up your own new heirloom stool at home or in class if time allows. All levels welcome.
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Making a Ladderback Chair
Snow Farm
Williamsburg, MA
August 17 - 22, 2025
Build a two-slat ladder back chair in the Appalachian tradition and add a beautiful piece of furniture in a classic style to your home. Students will start with a log and end up with a chair frame ready for seat-weaving by the end of the workshop. During the course of the class, Charles will share his knowledge of foundational greenwoodworking techniques, post and rung joinery, seating ergonomics and steam bending, giving students time for hands-on practice of each principle discussed. The main focus will be on hand tools and much of the work will be done by eye. All levels welcome.
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Stick Chair Design with Andy Glenn
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Waldoboro, ME
November 10-15, 2025