Alfred.

We had the lovely Tom Thackray and his son-in-law Steve in this week, teaching us the traditional craft of windsor chair making and I must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the week. We've gone back to the traditional methods with nary a machine in sight (unless you count the lathe), using some basic but useful hand tools - from wooden spokeshaves to giant pencil sharpeners (or rotary planes to those in the know). Working in groups of three, our Alfred has turned out a sprightly little fellow (despite Jonathan's best attempts to the contrary :p), even if we do say so ourselves.

Tom and Steve run classes on windsor chair making in their workshop in Nottinghamshire, so if you ever fancy having a go at this yourselves, I would thoroughly recommend it!
http://www.tomthackray.co.uk/

Shaping the seat using a wooden travisher. Hamish photo-bombing (again)

In the making I've learnt how to fit a square peg in a round hole

Our wee Alfred, all grown up

For those of you who are curious as to how my restoration project turned out, here are some pictures of the finished piece (see last week's instalment for a picture of what the board originally looked like, with a large crack running through the middle). This has probably been the most fun project I've embarked on since the start of the course, and certainly the quickest and least distressing. In the making I've discovered that I enjoy and am pretty good at pigment/colour work, which is a bonus as everything else doesn't really seem to come naturally!

My dinky little table in all its glory

A close-up of the restored crack

Restored board - I had lots of fun painting in the little cracks and holes 

On a more somber note, someone at the workshop had an accident last week, which was quite scary and sad. I guess it serves as  a reminder to always have a healthy respect for the machines. All it takes is a momentary lapse of concentration or over-confidence, and its bad news all around.