This month Scott tells how his furniture making course will help him achieve his goals.

As the start of my course got nearer I began to consider the implications of my office to workshop lifestyle change. This is not a hobby and my wife does not work so I must feed the family from the proceeds of furniture making. I have no experience of design or woodwork and everyone keeps telling me I am very brave to make such a big career leap. The result? I feel very alone in the World, a feeling that I imagine all self-employed people have (and hopefully get used to!). Faced with waves of impending doom, I reminded myself why I was doing this...I will get job satisfaction by being able to create beautiful furniture from a pile of logs and I will get flexibility and control of my time so that I have the option to vary my work around my family. The waves calmed and the loneliness faded for a while..

I know that it won’t be easy and that it may take a very long time to achieve these goals so when I turned up for my first day on Michael Scott’s furniture making course I was keen to get started.

I chose to go to Michael for the mix of skills and industry knowledge he can pass on but most importantly his friendly and practical approach. Michael had been a successful furniture maker and designer for over 15 years working to commission for private clients before switching his attention to teaching after a road accident damaged his arm. Whilst he retained his fine craftsman ability the accident left him without the speed required for pro making. Michael has a large workshop with 4 student benches and a fully equipped machine room all set in lovely Devon countryside. The fact that Michael runs full time courses for a maximum of 4 people means that all students get the attention they need to progress their individual requirements at speed.

My requirements are two fold. The first is to learn and develop the necessary skills to design and produce high quality furniture. The second is to learn about the business of furniture making so that I can set-up my own workshop, get customers and be profitable. At this stage I have not exactly decided on my target market, the type of furniture and what methods I will use so the course will provide a cross section of projects to suit all eventualities.

I have signed up for an initial six months during which time I will concentrate on producing three major pieces for my portfolio; a table, a chair and a cabinet. I will also make some smaller miscellaneous items such as lamps or clocks to practice design and batch production techniques and hopefully earn some pocket money in the process.

As I move from table to chair to cabinet I will learn new and more complex skills with each piece. The table will teach the basics of accuracy in measuring and marking (I was told today that the 4 legs in my table do actually have to be the same length – fussy details!), drawing and basic joins. The chair will teach structural considerations (so my matchstick chair idea has fallen at the first hurdle!), awareness of purpose in design, angled joints, and upholstering. The cabinet will teach advanced jointing, making drawers that don’t stick and hanging doors correctly first time every time.

Michael will also give technical lectures where notes are needed on areas such as tool preparation, wood properties, adhesives and finishing. This is important since I have the memory of a goldfish.

Everything I make will be designed by me though guidance is provided for structural elements and we have open discussion on examples of other work and styles.

To hold my attention I will learn as I work on real projects. I started my table by the end of the first week by preparing tools and learning techniques as I needed them. Where there are many different ways of achieving the same result Michael will teach all of them and leave it to me to decide which to use.

But what I like best about the course is that it is tailored to my individual requirements. Knowledge is always passed on to me with an explanation of how and why it will improve my business because that is the reason why I am there. This is a major reason why I chose this course instead of going back to college for 3 years…well that and the fact that I am too old to get drunk in the student’s union every night.

So after 10 days on the course I have fully enjoyed myself and can see that my friends and family will be seriously impressed with the results. Whether I can impress strangers enough for them to give me money is as yet unknown but I have learnt the pro-makers mantra “be good, quick and right first time”. All I need now is to invent a plane iron that never needs honing!

Next month… I’ll show you my first wobble free table and tell you my experience of making it.