The Fundamental Elements of Woodworking

What is furniture anyway? It means many things to many people for sure. And how the word furniture is employed can also have many meanings as well. Design, functionality, form, craftsmanship are some of the things that come to mind. But is it furniture? Well that all depends on what the eye sees.

I am once again in London,England for a few days. After a along flight, I decided to take a walk along theThames. When here visiting a good friend and fellow rower I decided a good point to begin a walk around town would be at the Putney Town Rowing Club boathouse. As I approached the boathouse parking lot, there it was, a piece of furniture. The first time I saw it was this summer while here for the Olympics. I had walked by it several times until, in a moment, a particular detail stared out at me.

The furniture? What was it? A rowing scull. A wooden rowing scull. What caught my eye was the skin of the boat and the carefully matched veneers that made the hull look as one piece. Truly a sign of craftsmanship. The boat builder, Carl Douglas whom I have since met.


Furniture you say? Just a boat? No, a beautifully hand crafted rowing scull that employs layers of Kevlar and wood veneers. But furniture, as you scratch your head?

Does it have thoughtful design? Most certainly. Form? It is sleek fast racing scull. That is the design. Functionality? Absolutely. It has the design as well as the form which gives it functionality. A fast competitive racing scull made to win.

So what element here is not in a finely made piece of furniture, or a restored pre 1850 English three bay four bent timber frame, or a student’s woodworking project? It first comes from an idea, then the design, followed by form, (the building of the piece) and, the functionality, (what the piece is supposed to serve).


That’s what we do at Banner Hill. We build, we teach, and we learn from every new experience, but the elements remain the same once the idea has taken root. The design, form, and functionality, remain the guiding principals whether it be a student project, a hand hewed pre-1850 timber frame being given new life, or a client commissioned piece.

It’s all furniture to us.

Banner Hill School, Custom Work, & Timber Framing

Banner Hill School

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We have been busy at Banner Hill re-vamping our three areas of business; the school, client based work and timber framing. On the school end of things you have told us where your interest is, ceramics and woodworking. And so we are refocusing in those core areas. We tested a number of shorter term programs in woodworking. We call them primer classes. There are six in all and we will probably add to them as time moves on. These classes are all 3 hours long and cover specifics in furniture building such as proper tool use, mortise and tenon, dovetails, etc. And we offer them to you with the most flexibility. Take one or take them all or sign up for any one in between.

We will still offer our popular Aspiring Woodwork week long course. If you take four of the six primers you will have a jump start on everyone else. And we will give you a tuition discount for taking this course. The same will apply to the woodworking program for women. We will continue to offer other classes as well such as the Shaker box, constructing a small cabinet, aspects in proper finish application and more.

On the ceramic side of the house we will continue to offer work shops, open studio time and Raku firings. If you haven’t done Raku or don’t have a place to do it, you can do it at Banner Hill. It’s fun, it’s fast and the result are unpredictable making your piece unique from everyone else.

We will still offer special instruction for individuals or groups in both ceramics and woodworking.

Client Based Work

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At Banner Hill we also do client based work including custom made furniture, restoration and repair work. If you have an idea for a piece of furniture or cabinetry but not quite such how it will fit or look, we will design it and build it for you; kitchen furniture, dining room table, bed frame and cabinets of any description. Bring us you ideas!

Timber Framing

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Finally on the timber framing side I’m pleased to say we have restored 3 pre-1850 timber frames over the past year and re-stood them on building sites that will be created into homes. These structures are truly unique. They are of furniture quality in that the timbers were cut and hewed into shape by hand. As I say, the beauty is in the slight of hand. These frame simply can not be reproduce. We have teamed up with Durkin Construction and bring years of timber framing experience to each and every program whether it is a vintage frame or a newly cut timber frame. Our timber frames are adaptable to almost any use; a home, business use, studio space, guest house or smaller structures for garden areas and patios.

We will soon be launching our new website where you will be able to see and read about the things we do at Banner Hill.

Kip Christie