We are excited to announce that our latest production, The Makers’ Marks: An In-depth Study of Handmade Furniture, is now available for purchase. This online course is an ambitious investigation into a number of examples of chairs (Post-and-rung, Windsor, and stump chairs), tables (worktables, tea table, drop leaf), desks (slant-front and standing), a chest of drawers, and a hanging cupboard. It’s quite an assortment of workmanship that displays everything from refined precision to humble utilitarianism. This course covers the gamut.
The course is the kind of thing we’ve hoped to do for a long time. Over the years of writing and teaching about authentic handwork, we’ve become convinced that people need to see it to really understand it. But without owning a furniture collection yourself or knowing a lady who knows a lady, it can be challenging for many people to get access to 200-year-old furniture. This course is designed to help overcome that barrier.
The Makers’ Marks is an extensive exploration of handwork (more than six hours of video course material) without turning pedantic. It presents a ton of information on everything from joinery (both expected and surprising) to decoration (sophisticated and whimsical), and surface conditions (in the innermost places, especially). If you’ve not spent much time with your neck craned inside of period woodwork or if you want to see some forms you’ve not yet seen, this course was designed with you in mind.
The introductory price for this course is $19 (it will go up to $25 at the end of October), but take note that all our Dispatch subscribers get a $5.00 discount through September. If you’ve been considering giving the Dispatch a try, now might be a good time: $5.00 for a month of Dispatch content and $5.00 off each of our fourcourses. There’s nothing to lose.
Yes, four courses. We’ve also adapted our Apprenticeship videos into Podia courses: Foundations, Tables, and Greenwood – and they’re all now $25 apiece. These three titles have become staples for our educational efforts, and this puts all our educational videos in one place, easy to navigate and easy to track your progress. We’re stoked about this user-friendly platform.
All our courses are available for purchase here on our website (see the “Courses” tab on the navigation bar) or over on our Apprenticeship website: https://www.mtapprenticeship.com, where your courses are viewed. After completion of your purchase, you will receive an email with the invitation to begin your course. (This typically takes 10 minutes or so, due to the lethargic comportment of the internet dwarves who carry files from computer to computer.) From there, you will have lifetime access to this material, including any updates or additional content we decide to add down the line.
But that’s enough chatter for now. I bet you’re anxious to check out some old-school craftsmanship. Have at it, folks.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback in the Dispatch forum!
Thanks for your support!
-Joshua