Master craftsman, furniture maker and author Nick Kary is running a 10-month-long furniture making course ‘A Journey to Making’ at Woodlab in Dartington’s North Woods.

Starting on Saturday March 18, the small-group course is open to all experience levels.

With a career in fine-furniture making spanning more than 35 years and a passion for working with hand tools, Nick has an abundance of knowledge to share with the eight students on this course.

Taking place over 10 weekends, students will be immersed into the world of craftsmanship and learn how to use a variety of hand tools including Japanese saws, hand planes, chisels, adze and froe, in order to make their own green cleft stool, small table and individual final piece.

During the course, Nick will share his passion for trees as well as timber, as he teaches the ancient skills needed to give wood a second life, without the need for machines.

He said: “There’s a huge responsibility that I feel as a maker of wooden objects to honour the trees that I’ve used in the making of my pieces.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to make for oneself, rather than professionally – what it means to have the skills, for us all to have the skills, to actually not just shop, but to make what we desire and what we wish.”

The course will take place in the beautiful, purpose-built, double-height Woodlab on the Dartington Estate.

Opened in July 2020, Woodlab is the first of its kind: a hub for regenerative, wood-based activity from which sawmills, foresters, makers and communities can all benefit without pillaging from the natural world.

The team are on a mission to reconstitute regional wood-processing chains, and to make the domestic timber industry more resilient.

In perfect alignment, both Nick and Woodlab prefer to work with wind-felled and diseased trees, lessening the impact of their craft on woodlands.

To book visit www.wood-lab.org/courses/journey-to-making