“[Green woodworking] is so rewarding… You start with a log and leave with a chair.”

Responding to the increased popularity of green woodworking workshops, Penland’s wood studio has added to its equipment list one of the most complete sets of shavehorses and green woodworking tools at any educational institution in the country (Shoutout to Florida School of Woodwork who also has one). Six months in the making, the new tools will be used for the first time this week during Robell Awake and Charlie Ryland’s workshop, “A Poynor Chair: From Logs to Ladderbacks.”

The Allure of Greenwood Furniture Making

Why do people love green woodworking? “Well,” said Penland wood studio coordinator Kylie Little, “It’s so rewarding… you start with a log and leave with a chair, which is wild.”

Greenwood chairmaking enthusiast and former Penland wood studio coordinator Aspen Golann agrees. Aspen helped create some of the shavehorses as the studio’s winter residency studio assistant. “The experience of starting in the woods as opposed to starting in a store… It just changes your relationship to the object and your understanding of the material,” she told us.

Here are a few more reasons why greenwood chairmaking is great, according to Aspen:

• “It’s one of the few hand tool woodworking processes that is actually efficiently done by hand.”
• “You don’t need $30,000 of equipment.”
• “It’s super improvisational. And it’s unlike most furniture making where you have to plan the entire thing and then basically it’s separated out into two categories of process: you are either planning and drawing or you’re carefully executing your drawing. The thing about greenwood chairmaking, at least the way that I practice it, is it’s possible to enter into it with a sense of a plan and then just respond to the object as you’re building, which is really exciting.”
• “It’s a physical challenge and the end result is so useful.”

Six Months of Acquiring and Making Specialized Tools

Prior to this session, it was necessary for many of our instructors to bring their own tools to supplement Penland’s equipment. Identifying this need, studio coordinator Kylie Little has been working hard since December to procure the specialized tools that will support hand tool furniture making workshops at Penland.

During the winter, Kylie had help from Aspen and her fellow studio assistant Larissa Huff, as well as student Alex Jarus. This group focused on creating the necessary new shavehorses and repairing and upgrading existing ones. These new “Gastler Shavehorses,” fashioned from poplar and a bit of red oak in key places, were created following plans by Sawyer Made chairmakers in Vermont where they have been in use for over 50 years.

Handing off the project like a baton, the team kept detailed notes for the next person. The final touches on the shavehorses came together just in time for the Poynor chair workshop, with help from summer intern Talia Tax. As these shavehorses are expected to last for many years, this is an exiting legacy for Kylie, Aspen, Alex, Larissa, and Talia to be a part of.

Check out these cool tools!

More Tools, More Instructors

As with any of Penland’s intensive craft workshops, a successful learning experience is a combination of the right equipment and the right instructor. Very few people learn greenwood chairmaking on their own, and those who practice this craft have learned to read the wood in ways that are best transmitted through hands-on learning.

Now that Penland has a full set of the specialized tools needed, we will be able to host instructors from both near and far, without the need for them to bring their own tools. We expect to have exciting programming in the coming years for those who are interested in the physical and mental challenge of green woodworking. For the next two weeks, we’re excited to learn with Robell Awake and Charlie Ryland. Stay tuned…