Christopher Faulkner Fine Furniture Making Courses

Description

Chris Faulkner
I trained as a furniture maker with Ted Baly in 1969 - 70 at Week near Dartington.

There has always been a strong arts and crafts influence at Dartington and my mother was drawn to live here by the music there. My father had been involved with silver in the Art Deco period and used to supply Libertys of London amongst others. So I grew up with an arts background.

Before training with Ted I had worked for three years in the timber trade and during this time I was lucky enough to study wood science. This is a qualification that I value enormously and is so useful when added to the teaching of furniture making. Ted had a kind manner but liked to have things right and you always knew that you hadn’t quite measured up when he looked at you over the top of his glasses rather than through them. He was a good teacher and I owe him a lot.

After completing the course I began making and accepted work of all sorts, there was rarely a break for the next thirty years. In the mid 1970s my work was accepted onto the Special Index of the Craft Council in London which has now become Photostore Selected Makers. I have completed more than 250 commissions, many for returning customers from all over the country. I began teaching in 1974 and well over 100 students have passed through Ashridge Workshop. I was heavily involved in exhbitions with the Devon Guild of Craftsmen from 1970 to the mid 1980s and then became so fully committed with my own making and teaching that that had to cease. I have ceased working to commission since 2001 due to teaching commitments but plan to make again in the future, although probably for family and friends only.

I enjoy teaching and the reward of creativity is just as strong when guiding people to their own creative peak as it is when making something myself. Everyone’s struggle is unique and the variety of challenges that the course throws up enlivens us all. Although the workshop is a place of discipline there is much humour throughout the day. My students drive themselves - I merely observe, sometimes over the top of my glasses.