Our Woodworking Courses

Our Tutors Draw From 35 Years at the Experimental Edge of Furniture Design & Making

If you were to read Bespoke, a book published in 2008 about British Furniture Designer Makers, you would find that one in every ten designer makers featured has been trained in their woodworking skills by David Savage.

David has been teaching creative individuals furniture design since 1984. This is not accounting for the hundreds of other less high profile makers that he trained who are currently thriving in small and large woodworking workshops all over the world – becoming shop fitters, kitchen fitters, french polishers, antique restorers, and joiners.

Though David is now largely retired, he still comes to the workshops to mentor students. His teaching methods and ethos developed from the Arts and Craft Movement all remain vibrant at Rowden, and set us apart from other schools.

Right now, there is a revolution in woodworking courses created by the closure of many state-run colleges. Our workshop has led the way and been the model for many of the private furniture making courses available to you today. Rowden Atelier is recognised as a Centre of Woodworking Excellence that produces exceptional furniture and trains exceptional woodworkers. With our range of specialist woodworking courses, you could be one of them.

So, have you ever found yourself thinking, “I wonder if there are any professional woodworking courses near me…” Well, wonder no more, because here at Rowden we offer everything from beginners’ woodworking classes to year-long furniture making courses.

ARE YOU THE KIND OF PERSON THAT CAN MAKE THIS WORK?

This is not for everyone. What matters is OOOOMMPH!

It’s not about qualifications or prior experience, it IS about attitude and personal qualities.

Exceptional students of all ages

Our joy and challenge is dealing with demanding people wanting to squeeze the last drop of information out of their time here. Wanting to get six months information from a one month woodworking course. As sources of information, we like to be squeezed, but we suggest that quality should be the aim whilst you are here.

Our full-time staff are Daren Millman and Jon Greenwood, both  skilled makers and very patient teachers. Ed Wild a national award-winning furniture maker is here every other day whilst running his own furniture making business.

Jonathan Walters, from Bark Furniture, is here once a week teaching business skills, and comes in for another week every month. Rachel is in the office every other day and deals with toilet rolls and paying bills. David Savage is retired from work but still runs a design tutorial on Mondays for those developing their first designs.

Doing this since 1984

Sooooo….. we are starting to get the hang of it. Between us we have over ONE HUNDRED YEARS EXPERIENCE in this business.

Exhibition Quality

Quality is what we do, YOU will do it too, from day one. We will teach you all stages from choosing hand tools, to picking out wood, to developing your drawings, and building a portfolio of work. There are lots of workshop schools, courses, and magazines that are great for showing you an amateur way of getting a good result. An amateur has no excuse for poor work other than lack of understanding, the amateur has all day to get it right, the professional has not. They must do it right, first time, every day.