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I will be participating in the Hamilton Woodworking Show this October. My sessions will revolve around hand tools. The sessions will be virtual and occur over the 2-day period of October 21,22 of 2023. I will provide an introduction to the various hand tools used in woodworking. Since I use hand tools extensively in my furniture making, the hand tools I use most will be introduced and discussed. It isn't necessary to begin hand tool woodworking with a complete set of tools as I will describe. A few critical hand tools will get you going. After some exposure to hand tools, you can then determine other hand tools you need for the type of woodworking you create. Join me on Saturday, Sunday October 21, 22 from 10-11AM at the Hamilton Woodworking Show woodshows.com

As a longtime member of the Furniture Society, I am honored to the featured member this week. The furniture Society revolves around a large group of furniture makers. The makers often contribute their time, expertise and knowledge to advance the artisanal furniture movement. The large membership consists of seasoned furniture maker and up and coming makers who share the same passion for furniture making and sharing their knowledge. You can view my work (portfolio) at the main Furniture Society web site as well as the portfolios of other furniture makers, some of which you might be familiar with.

https://www.furnsoc.org

In the Furniture Society own words...

"The Furni­ture Society is a nonprofit, educa­tional orga­ni­za­tion founded in 1996. The Furni­ture Society is the premier non-profit orga­ni­za­tion repre­sent­ing, promot­ing, and connect­ing furni­ture makers, design­ers, collec­tors, cura­tors, educa­tors and manu­fac­tur­ers from around the world.

Over­seen by a dedi­cated Board of Trustees and an Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, The Furni­ture Society works to realize its mission through educa­tional programs, publi­ca­tions, exhi­bi­tions and exhi­bi­tion support, recog­ni­tion of excel­lence in the field, program part­ner­ships, educa­tional grants, work­shop part­ner­ships, and annual confer­ences. With members from across the United States and Canada, as well as numer­ous other coun­tries, The Furni­ture Society repre­sents a broad cross-section of furni­ture makers, museum and gallery profes­sion­als, schol­ars, jour­nal­ists, and others involved with the field of furniture."

To advance the art of furni­ture making by inspir­ing creativ­ity, promot­ing excel­lence and foster­ing an under­stand­ing of this art and its place in society.

A large component of furniture design is in the conceptual stage. This is where furniture concepts and renderings are hatched and developed. Concepts are put to paper in the form of sketches. Typically, this is an iterative process with elements added or subtracted from previous sketches. Using this approach, a furniture design evolves and will ultimately form the basis for a scale model or prototype of a furniture piece. The conceptual stage of furniture design can be approached using traditional methods such as sketching the designs and then rendering the sketches or drawings. Another approach is to use a computer and CAD software to develop a design. I much prefer the traditional method as I can quickly generate furniture sketches in any scale. The rendering is accomplished through coloring in the elements of the furniture sketch or drawing.

An advantage to traditional pencil and paper sketching is that it is portable and can be performed anywhere. Often, an idea or concept for a furniture design comes to us and we need to quickly get it down on paper or risk losing the idea. A small sketch pad and pencil are the only tools necessary to ideate the vision or design. This allows us to visualize the design that was a few minutes ago only in our minds. We can then work to evolve the sketch or move on to another idea for a furniture design. It is this rapid and iterative process that is critical in ideating a furniture design. I will often convert a sketch into a drawing and then use CAD to create the components and joinery to be used in the furniture piece.

Sketching of furniture designs can be performed simply using a pencil and loose paper or a sketch pad. Practice creating straight lines without a ruler. Learn to use perspective in your sketches and drawings. 2-point perspective (second image) is ideal for most sketching although 1-point perspective does apply to small thumbnail sketches as seen in the first image. Rendering can be accomplished using colored pencils or a set of markers. Designing on paper resolves several issues included the aesthetic and proportions of the furniture. This topic is extensively covered in both my Furniture Design Course and Design to Making Class.

I recently created and released a new course. With the popularity of social media, I felt it is necessary to create a course describing the different platforms and how they can leverage woodworking sales. I combine my personal experience with different social media platforms and which ones I prefer in my own marketing. Each of the most popular platforms is described in-depth with the more common features each has to offer. The advertising and marketing component of each platform is also covered as this is relevant to social media marketing.

One of the first modules discusses how social media can be used to validate you as a woodworker and furniture maker. Towards the end, a module on social media strategy consolidates all the information and discusses best practices in marketing on social media. An example would be where to place your advertising dollars. I provide examples of how my own social media accounts are set up along with ad campaigns I have established.

Start Your Own Woodworking Business (eBook, 130pgs., $15 value) included with course