The Furnituremaking Workshops @ J. Miller Handcrafted Furniture
offer a wide range of hands-on workshops and classes in the craft
of making furniture. There are three basic types of classes: Furniture Workshops, Skill
Workshops, and 'Essentials' classes
- lecture/demonstrations on mastery of individual tools or on
making certain types of furniture.
In the furniture workshops, everyone in the class works on
a piece of furniture - typically a table or chair - learning skills
in context, but also getting a sense of the complete furnituremaking
process. These workshops are a great introduction to the shop
for beginners, and are also a great way for more experienced woodworkers
to step up to a higher level of craftsmanship. The skill workshops
concentrate on a particular woodworking skill (such as cutting
a specific joint) in depth, for those who want to improve their
work that way. The Essentials classes are lecture/demonstrations,
which focus on mastering the tools used in making furniture, or
on the things you need to know for building certain types of furniture.
Classes are small in size - 6 to 8 in a hands-on workshop,
and up to 12 in a lecture demonstration - and can accommodate
a wide range of skill levels, from novices to professionals looking
to refine their craft or explore a new area of furnituremaking.
Workshops range from a single weekend afternoon to a full forty-hour
week.
For more general information about
the workshops, the shop itself, and a brief bio of Jeff Miller,
click here.
Private lessons are also available, where you can work
with Jeff one-on-one on the topic or project of your choice. Please
call for more information.
We also offer an apprenticeship program
for the woodworker with a demonstrated commitment to furniture
making.
Winter/Spring 2007/2008
Furniture Workshops
Table Making Workshop
In the Table Making Workshop, you'll build a Shaker style
side table, coffee table, or hall table the choice is yours.
You'll take home your table at the end of the class (you will
need to do the finishing at home). Even more importantly, you
will come away with refined skills you can apply to numerous
other woodworking projects, and a sense of what it takes to make
a piece of fine furniture.
This is a great class for beginners, since it exposes you
to so much. But more advanced students will find that they pick
up on more of the subleties and refinements.
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Tuition.......... $525.00 (coffee table additional
$40, or hall table, additional $30.00); includes material
Friday, May 9, 9 AM - 5 PM, Saturday, May
10, 12 - 5 PM, and Saturday, May 17, 9 AM - 5 PM
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Chair Design Workshop NEW
Designing a chair is one of the most rewarding things a woodworker
can do, but it is also a task that can easily overwhelm. We'll
start with the issue of comfort, then you can work up your ideas
for your perfect chair. We'll build a prototype of your chair
in class. Then we'll discuss how to go about building the real
thing, covering appropriate structure, the proper use of joinery
on a chair, and the jigs you'll need to build your piece.
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Tuition.......... $1100.00; includes materials
Chair Design Workshop: Monday - Friday, April
14 - 18, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
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Make a Stool with Hand Tools NEW
This is hand tool fun all the way. And a very different way
to do woodworking. We'll start with milled blanks for the legs
and the seat, and do all of the shaping and joinery by hand (it's
easier than you think). You'll come away with a good deal more
confidence in your ability to get things done with hand tools,
a pile of new skills, and a bunch of useful woodworking tips
and techniques.
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Tuition.......... $575.00; includes materials
Make a Stool with Hand Tools: Thursday Evenings,
6 - 9 PM, January 10, 17, 24, 31, and February 7, 14, and 21
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Make Your Bed and Sleep in it Too!
I'll be teaching this hands-on class at the Marc Adams School
of Woodworking in Indiana, from April 21 - 25, 2008. Please see
their web site (www.marcadams.com)
for details!
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Skill Workshops
Dovetail Workshop
In our Dovetail Workshop, you'll learn to cut dovetails two
ways: by hand, and using the tablesaw and bandsaw (with a simple,
terrifically versatile jig that you can easily make at home).
A one-day, hands-on workshop devoted to this functional and sometimes
frustrating joint. Why settle for the mechanical look of routed
dovetails when you can learn to cut beautiful dovetails with
these methods? Work on the key skills for hand-cut joints, and
see how these skills can be applied elsewhere in your woodworking.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Dovetail Workshop: Saturday, January 5, 12:00
- 5:00 pm
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Hand Tools 1 Workshop
If the mere thought of using hand tools to do fine work makes
you nervous, you should take this class. Hand tools offer incredibly
precise control, can speed up your work, and are a delight to
use. We'll look at a variety of planes and chisels, and work
on sharpening, tuning, and the basic skills for hand tool use
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Hand Tools 1 Workshop: Tuesday Evenings, March
4th and 11th, 6:00 - 8:30 pm
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Hand Tools 2 Workshop
A follow-up class to our Hand Tools Workshop, which will concentrate
on a variety of more advanced chisel and hand plane skills. Through
a series of exercises, you'll work on improving your command
of these tools. All of these exercises directly apply to actual
use of hand tools in common woodworking situations.
You will need to bring tools that are sharp and well-tuned. Our
Hand Tools Workshop covers this, and you should either have taken
this class, or be certain that your tools are at their best.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Hand Tools 2 Workshop: Tuesday Evenings, March
18th and 25th, 6:00 - 8:30 pm
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Inlay Workshop
Inlay can be the perfect, virtuostic touch on a project. This
class will cover cutting the grooves both with a router and by
hand with a scratch stock, cutting and sizing stringing, inlaying
irregular shapes, hot sand shading and more.
Taught by Buck Johnson, our inlay expert.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Inlay Workshop: Saturday, March 1, 12 - 5
PM
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Furniture Design Fundamentals
Moving from the idea of a piece of furniture to an actual
piece requires skills and techniques. There are also tools available
that can help. This workshop introduces the fundamental skills,
techniqes and tools that you need to work up your ideas and turn
them into successful designs. We'll also go through a number
of exercises that can help explore your design ideas, including
creation of a small model.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Furniture Design Fundamentals Workshop: Saturday,
March 15, 12 - 5 PM
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Mortise and Tenon Workshop
The most important and widely-used joint in furniture making
is one that many people spend much time and effort trying to
avoid. In the Mortise and Tenon Workshop, we'll show you a wide
range of options for cutting the joints, including some very
simple and versatile jigs you can use for accurate results.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Mortise and Tenon Workshop: Saturday, April
5, 12:00 - 5:00 pm
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Finishing Workshop
The essentials of great finishing with methods that work well
at home, or in a pro shop (like ours) without full set-up for
spraying. We'll cover everything from surface preparation, coloring
wood, and a variety of topcoats, to methods for application.
Appropriate finishes for different types of projects will be
discussed, along with the pros and cons of different products
and methods.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Finishing Workshop: Saturday, May 3, 12 -
5 pm
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Shaping and Bending Curves
Mastering curves can open up a whole range of projects, and
help bring your woodworking to a new level. We'll discuss layout,
cutting, smoothing, and refining curves, including three dimensional
curves. Then we'll move on to bending curves by laminating thin
layers together. A variety of tools and jigs for doing curved
work will be covered. We'll also do some hot pipe bending.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Shaping and Bending Curves: Saturday, May
31, 12 - 5 pm
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Essentials
Tablesaw Essentials
If you're using your table saw just for cutting wood to size,
you're not getting all you can out of it. In this class, we'll
cover a wide variety of jigs for turning your saw into a safer
and more versatile tool. Included will be a wide variety of joints,
duplication of parts, panel-raising, and much more. We'll also
cover the critical topics of tablesaw safety, and basic tune-ups
and improvements you can make to your saw.
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Tablesaw Essentials: Saturday, January 26,
1 - 5 PM
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Essentials of Cabinetmaking
There are so many types of cabinets and so many methods for
building them it can get very confusing. Buck Johnson will help
you to sort through the possibilities, and help you to choose
the best and the fastest methods for building case pieces, and
then fitting them with various types of moldings, feet, and other
decorative and functional elements.
Taught by Buck Johnson
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Tuition.......... $100.00
Essentials of Cabinetmaking: Saturday, February
23, 12 - 5 PM
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