by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 15, 2019 | Classes | 0 Comments
I'm excited to announce my first-ever guest instructor! Jane Mickelborough will teach a small spoon carving class in my shop while she's in the states visiting Curtis Buchanan. She's taught at Spoon Fest and hosts a spoon-carving festival in France where she lives;...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 21, 2018 | Classes | 0 Comments
Seth (resident toolmaker, rivings splitter, cook and nice guy) suggested I run a two week class, from log to paint. Since my new Greeenwood Week is filling up, I figured I might as well try this too. I've been building a spring-pole lathe and intend to park it in my...
by Elia Bizzarri | Nov 2, 2018 | Classes | 0 Comments
I've been wanting to try this class for a while now and this year I finally decided to take the plunge. Roy Underhill used to teach a class like this at his school and I always enjoyed the day when I'd go and 'help', which mostly involved watching students work and...
by Elia Bizzarri | Sep 6, 2018 | Classes | 0 Comments
I must apologize; I've been dilatory with my blog posts the last couple months. I've been busy building two sheds off my shop, one off the front for outdoor shaving-horse work and one off the back for Seth to set up for tool manufacturing. We've also put down about...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jul 2, 2018 | Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, Classes, How-To | 4 Comments
I recently posted about drill bit varieties for chairmaking and got a number of comments about Wood Owl bits. I had never used them, but someone kindly sent me a couple to try. Here's what I found: There is no such thing as a perfect bit. Designing a drill bit is a...
by Elia Bizzarri | May 22, 2018 | Classes, How-To | 1 Comment
One of my students filmed this short video during his week in my shop building a Continuous Arm Windsor chair. It's fun for me to hear some of the random things I say during a week in the shop. Maybe you'll enjoy it too... I just had a cancellation in my August...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 1, 2018 | Chair Stories, Classes | 3 Comments
Last month Leo bought a Velda's Arm chair, a chair I made at Anderson Ranch with the class I was teaching there. Here's a story about his chair: Imagine spending a hard day's work shaping a single piece of walnut, then putting it in a piping hot steam chamber....
by Elia Bizzarri | Oct 8, 2017 | Classes, How-To | 0 Comments
I prefer to size stretcher tenons with a Turner's Gate (Sorby calls it a Sizing Tool). It's major advantage over dowel plates and tenon cutters is that the tenon shoulder can be easily removed using a skew, plus the tenons are always in line with each other. A...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jul 20, 2017 | Classes | 0 Comments
I have added a Comb Back Rocker class to my schedule, May 14-19, 2018. It is open to returning students only, since the spindles and bends will have to be made at home. This is the first time I have taught this chair in a group setting and I think it will be a...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jun 25, 2017 | Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, Classes, Craft Films | 0 Comments
My new DVD is out! I love building these little tables - they have many of the fun aspects of building a chair, but they can be made in a weekend. Well, maybe two weekends, a month apart. Here's a tour of my shop that the crew filmed while they were...
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