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Dixie Biggs
Instructor
Dixie Biggs has been a full-time studio woodturner/artist since 1989. She grew up with a love of carving and a fascination for working in wood. Her interest in woodturning began in 1979 when she taught herself to use a wood lathe so she could duplicate a chess set her grandfather had made.
Read MoreMark Gardner
Instructor
Mark started working in wood at the age of sixteen when he enrolled in a furniture making class with his father at the University of Cincinnati. Furniture making is a slow process, and the immediacy of turning was very attractive to Mark. After struggling on his own for several years, Mark took a class with John Jordan. He credits John for giving him a firm foundation of turning techniques. John’s passion and commitment to his work continues to inspire Mark.
Read MoreAlex Grabovetskiy
Instructor
Alexander Grabovetskiy was recognized as the 2012 International Wood Carver of the year, and his piece Wall Decoration was awarded first place. His work utilizes the same approaches used for centuries by master woodcarvers, including techniques employed by Grinding Gibbons.
Read MoreAspen Golann
Instructor
Aspen Golann is an artist and a 17th & 18th century-style furniture maker living in North Carolina. Her furniture work mixes art with classic American furniture forms to make subtle statements about gender and power in the world of craft. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and is published in Fine Woodworking, Lost Art Press, Luxe, Art New England, and artscope.
Read MoreJason Lonon
Instructor
Woodworker and blacksmith , Jason Lonon has studied, practiced, and taught traditional woodworking and blacksmithing in a variety of settings, from youth summer camps to community colleges. Currently Jason specializes in making traditional woodworking tools, and for fun he carves wooden bowls and spoons.
Read MoreAndrew Hunter
Instructor
Inspired by the patience and dedication of a traditional Japanese apprenticeship, I embarked on a life-long journey to become a master furniture maker. Fifteen years ago I began my self-imposed apprenticeship with a minimal collection of Japanese hand tools to teach myself the fundamental skills of woodworking. I spent over a year on blade sharpening alone. Along the way I explored the woodworking traditions of Japan, China and Early America. I now integrate these influences with my own design aesthetic to create personal, one-of-a kind furniture pieces. My simple shop is a place of quiet solitude where I can be present with my work. Through the use of hand tools I create an intimate relationship with each piece of wood, combining my own spirit with that of the tree. I invest myself in the entire building process, from selecting wood from local sawmills to hand-forging my own hardware. It is this attention that gives a strong sense of presence to my work. Today, I combine the fundamental skills I have learned with the efficiency of modern power tools to create furniture of heirloom quality with the hope that one day it will inspire a new generation of craftsmen artists.
Read MoreMike Korsak
Instructor
Mike’s reverence for all things wood was nurtured at an early age by his grandfather, a hobbyist woodworker and carpenter. Throughout high school, college and beyond, Mike explored wood as a building material through woodworking, studying Wood Products at The Pennsylvania State University, timber framing, carpentry and designing timber frames. In 2005, Mike and his future wife, Jen, moved to New England, an area with a rich tradition as one of the centers of studio furniture making. Mike had the good fortune to work with one celebrated maker, which was a catalyst for the type of finely detailed work he currently produces. Mike, Jen and Ted the Newfoundland live on a small homestead in the Fox Chapel area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they grow vegetables and blueberries. Lots of blueberries.
Read MoreGiles Newman
With a background in photography and graphic design but a lifelong love of woodlands and wilderness, I started teaching myself woodcarving in early 2015 as a way to spend more time in the small woodland that I manage in the mountains of North Wales. Using only the tools that I already had for looking after the woodland, my axe and a knife, I began carving wooden spoons from wind-fallen trees and branches that I would find and forage for on the woodland floor. After twelve months I abandoned my life as a designer and photographer to pursue my wood carving full time.
Read MoreMike Pekovich
Instructor
Mike has studied furniture making, fine art, and graphic design, and he’s been putting those skills to use designing and building furniture for over 30 years. For the last 20 of those, he’s also been busy as the art director at Fine Woodworking magazine and most recently as the author of The Why and How of Woodworking, where his aim is to communicate woodworking how-to in a clear and inspiring way.
Read MoreDarrell Peart
He started his career making and selling small wooden items at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. To broaden his experience, he then worked for many years in various high-end custom shops throughout the Puget Sound area gaining an extensive background in both commercial and custom furniture making. The influence of Greene & Greene can clearly be seen in Darrell’s work, but he has rarely exact reproductions. Exploring new design work is where his passion lies, and has brought him acclaim in the woodworking world. Darrell also writes and lectures about design, woodworking, and the history of Greene & Greene. He has written articles for Home Furniture, Today’s Woodworker, Fine Woodworking, Woodwork, Popular Woodworking, American Woodworker, Woodworker West, Style 1900, British Woodworking, 360 Woodworking, The SAPFM Journal, and Australian Wood Review.
Read MoreKierstin Siegl
Kierstin Siegl is an artist and furniture maker living in Chicago, IL. With a special interest in Early American and Mid-Century Modern Design traditions, she makes furniture, tools, and household items as a way to enact and interrogate values perpetuated in the built environment. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
Read MoreChris Schwarz
Instructor
I’m a furniture maker, writer and publisher who works from a storefront in Covington, Ky. I am one of the founders and the editor of Lost Art Press, which publishes books on hand tool woodworking. And I am one of the founders of Crucible Tool. In 2019, I closed my commission book, and I now build pieces on spec only and sell them via my blog at Lost Art Press.
Read MoreKate Swann
Director/Instructor
Renowned for her exquisite textural and surface embellishment work, Kate Swann is a master craftswoman of fine wood furniture and sculptural works. Her unique artwork has received much praise and many of her designs are recognized as signature works: published, collected and widely known.
Read MoreLaura Mays
Laura Mays has a degree in architecture from University College Dublin and a higher certificate in Furniture Design and Manufacture from GMIT Letterfrack (Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology), both in Ireland. She followed that with two years in the Fine Woodworking program at the College of the Redwoods (now The Krenov School) in Fort Bragg, Calif., where since 2011 she has been the program director.
Read MoreLarissa Huff
Instructor
I design, build, and finish furniture (and anything else I find interesting) from local Pennsylvania hardwoods. I showcase the material and joinery as the primary design details in my work. I still love to teach. I have been designing and teaching long and short form woodworking courses for nearly 1o years.
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