Full Swing

So the term is well and truly in full swing now with many students already completing work for various deadlines as well as many just getting started on pieces. it's been a good mix of students from many of our courses and the diverse nature of the work certainly reflects that. Below are some images taken from the past few days.

A fun little paper rolling piece here for this Fine Art student to draw on whilst on the move.

A mitered box being glued up here with diagonal slots.

A bit of plastic manipulation with the heat gun in full flow here.

That's an impressively large piece of timber. This final year student has a lot of planning to do.

 Lots of finishing and sanding here as this MA Fine Art piece starts to take shape.

 Another Interior Design project and more team work on view.

We are just 24 hours from this years staff show. Watch this space for much more of the final transformation of this space.

Baby its cold outside!

So as the temperatures drop outside things are warming up in. Having just inducted the first year Interior Design students, we then had a visit from the FDA in the same subject. It's still early stages of the term but it looks like the Wood workshop, here at Chelsea, will be bulging at the seems for much of it. Below are some images taken from the past few days.

Small Works filling up with Interior Design students working away on their projects 

Meanwhile in the assembly space some bigger work is under construction. 

MA Fine Art student Johnny gets to grips with his structure

Phil in full swing describing how to use hand tools 

John doesn't need machines. He shows the students why with a perfectly hand sawn piece of wood.

Weng spots the camera but continues soon after to show the students how to drill perfect holes

There is an art to sanding and there's nobody better to show how than John with the FDA students looking on.

It's Interior Design Induction Time

So these past couple of days have seen the first year students from BA Interior and Spatial Design down in the Wood Workshop for their inductions. A comprehensive three hour session saw us showing the groups tools, machines materials and processes. Ending as always with an opportunity for them to all get hands on with a little making project. It all seemed to go rather well with some very good results at the end. Below are some images taken from two of the sessions.

Phil takes the students through some of the hand tools and their use.

John captivates another audience. 

John demonstrates everything you need to know with the Bandsaw...

and then onto the Table Saw.

What Phil doesn't know about the Pillar Drill jet isn't worth knowing.

He is pretty handy with the Router as well. 

Stef has some silky skills when it comes to Plastics. He he talks through lots of materials that we use in the workshop 

Here he demonstrates the use of the hot wire foam cutter. 

And then we got the students into pairs and let them lose on the machinery in a bid to cut out and fit together some shapes. 

Some drilling.

Some cutting. 

 Some more cutting.

Some delicate cutting. 

Some sanding.

Some filing.

And finally, all were pinned down to compare the results. Well done all of you!

Another New Year

The doors of the Wood Workshop, here at Chelsea College, opened once again to welcome students back from their Christmas break. This first week we focus on MA students ahead of next weeks new BA term. We anticipate this term being an energetic and productive one so these first few quieter days give us the chance to prepare for the oncoming rush. 

MA Fine Art student Kelise starts to glue up the sections that will form her postcard holder 

Kelise demonstrates the importance of a good set of working drawings allowing the making phase to run much smoother

John spent a great deal of time preparing these jigsaw pieces that next week, Interior Design students in pairs, will attempt to cut and fir them beautifully together. This forms part of their induction into our workshop

They will also be shown many examples of what is possible within our workshop and the techniques and processes that allow these to happen.