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Open Studios are resuming on Fridays, with a few changes:
During this test period, which will run into February, private donors are funding the pay for the professionals. We expect that past the trial period, there will be a fee to cover costs. And, depending on demand and safety monitor availability, we may expand this to multiple Fridays each month.
Members are welcome to ask the pro for suggestions about design, joinery, finishes or other details. This isn't a class with an agenda driven by an instructor, but rather an opportunity for woodworkers to ask questions and get advice from someone with years of professional experience. The pro will not be teaching how to operate the tools.
As with all Open Studio sessions, a safety monitor will be on duty and will be responsible for safety. You will be able to work on projects of your own choosing.
When professional woodworkers in our area have questions, they often seek advice from Erpelding, who works out of a two-car-garage shop at his home. He got into the field via a job in a bookstore, where he needed to build shelves and repair furniture. He went on to study at the Oregon College of Arts & Crafts. Through a grant he received from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1980s, he developed designs for a stacking chair that he still makes in small runs. A Popular Woodworking article featured his use of computerized woodworking tools to cut parts, grooves for intricate inlays and joinery that he tuned in the software to slide together with the perfect amount of friction for the glue he was using.
Examples of Erpelding's work can be seen on the website of Northwest Fine Woodworking, a Seattle gallery that closed in 2016 but lives on via its website.
Erpelding cut the intricate inlay for this table on his CNC router, which he designed and built himself.
Details for this Open Studio session:
Make a charcuterie board or a cutting board shaped like a pig, a leaf or whatever catches your imagination.
This class is designed to introduce beginners to the joys of working with wood, although experienced woodworkers are also welcome. You will learn to use a band saw and various sanding tools, plus perhaps a drill press and a scroll saw, depending on the design you choose.
You will cut your design from a single board, not glued-together strips of wood. Strip-style cutting boards stay flatter and therefore are better for heavy-duty food preparation. But the boards made in this class are simpler and quicker to make.
Your board will make a marvelous gift — if you don't decide to keep it for your own kitchen for serving cheese, bread, or a charcuterie array.
Tip: You might also want to sign up for a Kitchen Arts class, Get on Board with Charcuterie, on Dec. 12. Learn how to create a meal for two (or appetizers for four) on the board you make in this class.
Details:
Make a bandsaw box from a solid piece of wood, without needing to make any tricky joinery at the corners. Once you know the process, you can go on to make boxes that are oval, heart-shaped, lizard-shaped, or most any shape you want. Bandsaw boxes make great gifts and are a wonderful way to turn leftover pieces of wood into something beautiful and useful.
You will learn about bandsaw box design and construction, cut your box on the bandsaw, and glue it together. As the glue is drying, you will learn how to finish your box with milk paint and pyrography (using a pen that burns a design into the wood). The last hour of this class, when you will be embellishing your box, overlaps with Open Studio, so you are likely to be sharing space with other BARN woodworkers.
Your materials fee covers a maple block for your box. You can substitute other wood if you have a piece you want to use.
Instructor: Ted Newman. Ted studied woodworking and has assisted in classes at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. He is active in BARN's woodworker group and volunteers as a safety monitor.
To use the shop, you will also need to attend our free one-hour Orientation to the Woodshop class.
Woodshop Tool Safety 1 will qualify you to use the following tools during Open Studio time and in classes that require certification in these tools:
* This class has prerequisites. Please see below.
If you're a woodturner, you can gear up for the holidays by making projects for your own table or for personally designed gifts. The system you will learn in the class is applicable to many turning projects.
In this 2-session class, you will choose two of these items to make:
During the first session, you will create a design, and then learn how to use a Ruth Niles mandrel to mount stock on the lathe. You will turn and sand this project, and select a finish for it. During the second session, you will turn and sand your second project, sand and learn how to apply finish and buff both, then mount the hardware.
Wooden spoons can be completely utilitarian — or real works of art. In this class, you will learn to make the more challenging, artful kind. You'll be well prepared if you later want to make purely utilitarian spoons on your own.
Spoon carving involves grain changes, curves and hollowing — all techniques that are useful in many kinds of carving projects. The instructor will explain a variety of tools you might want to use and how to use them safely. You will also learn how to hold or secure the wood safely and the steps involved in carving spoons efficiently. You will work from prepared basswood blanks.
Tuition assistance is available. Click here to apply.
BARN will supply carving tools to share, but students are also encouraged to bring their own.
Instructor: As a third-generation woodworker, Jeff Iller learned about woodworking tools and knives early on. By high school, he was winning ribbons with his wood carvings at his hometown fair. Around 1996 Jeff found room for a shop and he has carved ever since. He’ll carve most anything, but prefers to innovate with the working tools to carve multiple parts inside one piece of wood and to make physically detailed and accurate carvings of women's faces. Carvings on the entry sign to the BARN Woodworking Studio shows the quality of his work.
Iller says he was taught early on that he could make anything from wood. He is still trying to prove that statement wrong.
Participants will also learn about the leadership structure within the shop and about opportunities to participate in helping everything run smoothly. Volunteer jobs range from serving as safety monitors to helping on Maintenance Mondays.
Instructor: Jeff Williams
Instructor: Charles Sharpe
Make two bowls 6 to 7 inches in diameter in this two-session class as you build your woodturning skills and learn some of the special techniques and insights needed for bowl-turning.
The best (and most fun) way to hone your bowl-turning skills is to use green wood for the blanks. In this class you will turn two green-wood bowls, working on smooth and efficient cuts. In the first session, you will learn the best bowl shape for a novice turner, how to safely mount the blank on the lathe, and how to use of a scroll chuck and bowl gouge. You will also learn how to maintain even wall thickness, and how to treat the bowl to prevent cracking while it dries. In the second session, in addition to turning a second bowl, you will learn the basics about balancing grain and which Northwest woods are best for turning.
By successfully completing these two sessions and turning two bowls, you will have a good understanding of the process and techniques, and be qualified to turn bowls of this size independently during Open Studio time in the BARN Woodworking Studio.
While this class is oriented to novice turners, it is also appropriate and useful for experienced turners who have predominantly used scrapers and wish to acquire or improve their gouge skills.
Photograph by Joy McCallister Photography.
Instructor: Jamie Straw has been turning wood for several years, working on both spindle and bowl projects, and has taught woodturning at BARN since July 2017. She also serves as coordinator of BARN’s woodturning classes. She is past Vice President for Education and Training for the local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners. Her focus is on helping students build skills progressively as they design and create their woodturning projects.
Do you play a guitar, violin or cello but aren't sure how to care for it? Or are you curious about whether a stringed instrument that's been in the family for decades is suitable for a student to use? Are you interested in learning luthier skills?
At this event, you can meet others interested in creating a luthier program at BARN, which might include informal get-together sessions, programs on topics such as tone wood, and classes such as building a dulcimer or learning to create inlays. It's a great opportunity to get answers to your questions and share your suggestions.
Discussion leaders will include Wayne Johnson, owner of Irvin Guitars, who makes fine hand-crafted acoustic steel-string guitars; Clay Levit, a fiddle player and former owner of the Fiddler's Green Music Shop in Austin, who makes violins; and Rob Carson, a cellist and stringed instrument maker with formal training in violin restoration and repair.
This class is for ages 21+
Add charcuterie to your kitchen wheel house in this hour and a half class at BARN. Led by Kimber Brown you’ll learn how to create a meal for two (or appetizers for 4) on a serving board of your choice that will not only look amazing but will dazzle those who you invite to devour it.
Featuring a Mediterranean theme, you’ll be making hummus from scratch, slicing and dicing veggies and cheeses, and layering all the ingredients, which include; salami, olives, naan, and dolmus into a beautiful, colorful gastronomical feast. When your creation is finished, you’ll step back and say, “Wow! I made that!”
We’ll supply the ingredients and a glass (or two) of vino – you come with a serving board such as a ceramic or glass plate or platter, a wood slab – like a cutting board, or metal tray. As for size, plan for something in the range of 6” to 11” across x 12” to 16” long or up to a 14” circle. If it’s larger, no problem. We’ll create in the space you provide. Also, bring two to three small bowls that will fit onto your board to hold dips and other food items, about 3 – 4 inches across.
Instructor: Kimber Brown Never one to back away from a fun kitchen experience, Kimber discovered the world of building food boards when a friend gifted her a board book and a food board for her birthday. Both items sat until this past summer when she cracked open the book and immediately scoured her larder for the starting ingredients of what became the first of many boards. From savory to sweet each board she creates has its own style and flavor but all are guaranteed to wow. Also, as a woodworker Brown looks forward to creating more boards for her collection to use for when she says, “I am bored – let’s make a board!”
Instructor: TBD
Get started on your woodturning adventure with this three-session beginner's class, where you’ll complete small spindle projects as you learn safety, tool control and how to create the basic shapes involved in spindle and bowl turning.
By successfully completing this class and our free, one-hour Orientation to the Woodshop class, you will be cleared to use the wood lathes for spindle turning during Open Studio. You will also be eligible to take a bowl-turning class, although it is strongly suggested that you spend time turning in Open Studio a few times before you enroll in that class. (Note that you still must take Tool Safety Classes before using other power tools in the Studio.)
You will learn about bandsaw box design and construction, cut your box on the bandsaw, and glue it together. As the glue is drying, you will learn how to finish your box with milk paint and pyrography (using a pen that burns a design into the wood).
This is a BARN holiday. Doors will be locked to members and non-members.
To turn wood effectively and enjoyably, you need sharp tools that have quality profiles. Learn to sharpen the tools you need to turn spindles, bowls and other projects on the wood lathe.
In this class, you will learn to sharpen gouges according to BARN protocol and gain an understanding of how to sharpen other tools (e.g., skews, parting tools, scrapers). If you would like advice on your own tools, you are welcome to bring them.
This class is strongly recommended for students who have completed Intro to Woodturning or are enrolled in Intro to Bowl Turning. The class is required for any turners who wish to use BARN turning tools on an ongoing basis.
Instructor bio: Jamie Straw has been turning wood for several years, working on both spindle and bowl projects, and has taught woodturning at BARN since July 2017. She also serves as coordinator of BARN’s woodturning classes. She is past Vice President for Education and Training for the local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners. Her focus is on helping students build skills progressively as they design and create their woodturning projects.
This class has a prerequisite. Please see below.
Get a good foundation in carving techniques, including push, stop and draw cuts. In this three-session class, you will learn the basics of safe handling and use of carving knives the first night, then go on to learn how to deal with changes in wood grain, hollowing techniques, and other concepts as you make a spoon and carve a figure during the second and third sessions.
This class is open to both beginning carvers and those who already have some carving experience. Each time BARN schedules this class, the carving projects are new.
Tuition assistance is available. Click here to fill out our simple application before you register.
During this test period, which will run into February, private donors are funding the pay for the professionals. We expect that past the trial period, there will be a fee to cover the costs. And, depending on demand and safety monitor availability, we may expand to offer this on multiple Fridays each month.
Celeski studied architecture and design and spent more than 30 years in business as a designer. Once he discovered woodworking, he fell in love with the craft, dropped his design career, became a full-time furniture maker and never looked back. His main focus has been on original design, high-end custom outdoor furniture. His extensive line covers many types of furniture from Arts and Crafts to contemporary. His work is in in collections across the US and Canada. More than 100 of his pieces are in some of the Greene and Greene masterpieces in Pasadena.
Celeski currently focuses on fine art wood sculpture and contemporary furniture. He’s a contributing editor writing on digital woodworking methods and furniture design for Popular Woodworking Magazine and an instructor at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.
The Leschi 66” contemporary backless bench is designed for both indoor and outdoor use.
* This class has a pre-requirement. Please see below.
Bring your acoustic, steel-string guitar to this class and learn how to make it as easy to play and good-sounding as it can be.
Master luthier Wayne Irvin Johnson will begin by discussing key elements involved in setting up a guitar, including neck relief, nut action, string action, intonation and more. Then he will guide you through the steps as you perform your own setup.
You will tweak truss rods for perfect neck relief and make nut and bridge adjustments for great action. You'll also learn how to make saddle adjustments to improve intonation. Finally, you'll learn about string differences, put on a set of fresh strings, and test out your improvements.
Please note: This class is for people with steel-string guitars, not classical, nylon-string instruments.
Learn to use woodworking tools safely, efficiently and with precision while you build a project such as a desk organizer or a tool tote. You will be able to customize the design to suit the way you plan to use your project.
Projects are subject to the instructor's approval, with one key criteria being that your design is streamlined enough to complete within the three sessions of this class.
*This class has prerequisites. See below.
Gain confidence in using a wide array of power tools safely in this three-week component of BARN's Intro to Woodworking series.
You will build a sturdy, two-step stepstool of solid wood and plywood. The project was specifically designed to give you experience with the most common stationary and portable tools in the woodshop:
Instructor: Mo Ellis
If you want to be more effective when using any of the four bandsaws in the BARN Woodworking Studio, this class is for you. A bandsaw seems like a simple machine, but to get the best results, one must understand the types of blades, the guides that support the blade, the size and power of the saw, and how the teeth cut wood. And some cuts — such as resawing, cutting curves and beveling — require special techniques. All bandsaws need to be tuned regularly, and with the heavy use in our studio, more often than once per week.
In the first session, you will learn about the mechanics of the saw and blades, how to choose which saw and blade to use, how to tune each saw, and how to change the blade when you need a different one for your project.
In the second session, you will practice making cuts of various kinds, including those that require relief cuts, templates, stock support or special tuning of the fence. Such cuts include resawing, cutting round stock, tapering (for pieces such as table legs), easy circle cutting, beveling and template-cutting for duplicates.
Completing this class will qualify you to use the 36-inch Northfield saw, which is not included in the tool safety class that covers the other bandsaws.
You will be encouraged to ask questions relevant to your own project interests, and to share any problems you've had using bandsaws.
Instructor: Jamie Straw. Jamie has been woodworking for more than 20 years and has experienceon all of the standard stationary tools of a wood shop. Her first floor-model tool was a bandsaw, which she uses for both sawing large woodturning blanks and processing dimensional lumber.
A violin or fiddle, like any instrument, needs periodic adjustment to perform at its best. This class will teach you how to do it.
Violin builder Clay Levit will discuss the basic mechanics of how a violin produces sound and demonstrate aspects of basic violin set up including correct restringing, lubricating nut slots, and placement and adjustment of the bridge, sound post, and tailpiece. These adjustments will help get the optimal tone and playability from your violin.
Although these adjustments are preferably done by professional luthiers, they can be done by players themselves with some experience and practice.
Note: Bring your own violin and provide strings if you want to change them.
The table saw is a cornerstone of every shop, and in this introductory class you'll learn the fundamentals of how this powerful and versatile machine works. We'll start with the anatomy of a table saw and how to calibrate the saw to achieve precise cuts every time, and then move on to skills like ripping wood, making miter cuts, and learning to make rabbets and dadoes.
By the end of this class, you'll have covered most of the cuts you'll ever make with a table saw. You'll have the skills and confidence to change blades, know how to ensure that your cuts are straight and square, and understand how to cut pieces to size accurately and repetitively. The materials fee covers practice wood. This class focuses on learning techniques, not building a class project.
Instructor: Dina Madson is a safety monitor in the BARN Woodworking Studio and a local
