Curves and curved elements can add elegance, allure, and in some cases strength to your furniture designs. We will explore and make several different curved parts — various types of laminations useful for curved drawers and chair parts, by shaping out of the solid with hand tools, and by coopering, a way to make curved panels or case sides. Steam bending as an alternative method will be included in this discussion. 

We will talk about how to generate pleasing curves, drawing them (and for the joinery later), and which technique might be best to produce that curved part.  Each student will make a lamination and/or shape a curved part out of the solid and then cut the joinery as if it were a drawer face or chair rail into a leg. There will be time to experiment with coopering and some of the interesting shapes possible with this unusual technique.

Outside In, 2017, Douglas fir, cherry, 20 other native woods, paint details by Carolyn Hack