I've been working on some interesting projects the last few months. In the main image is a pair of bar stools that turned out nicely. I used traditional milk paint on them, the first time I've done this. The effect is rather pleasing. Contact me at info@benwillis-woodcraft.co.uk if you have a special commission in mind.

More space = happy woodworkers
Meanwhile, 2019 course dates are all firmed up and starting to book up. I'm now fully up and running in my newly enlarged teaching space in Crystal Palace. It's a big step forward, enabling me to have six work stations and much more room for people to move around. Owing to the popularity of the live-edge bench course I'll be running a couple of these in the first half of next year. Also, due to popular demand, I've been trying to find ways of incorporating turning on a traditional lathe into my London chair courses for those that haven't tried it before. The solution I've come up with is to offer one or two pre-course turning taster sessions to students that sign up for the chair course. I'm trialling this on my current autumn course and it seems to be working out well, so for would-be chair makers who also want to try some turning, this is now an option. Go to my City Courses page for details on course dates in the first half of 2019. The chair pictured is a new style of Windsor side chair that I'll be teaching on my London chair courses from now on. You can find details on these here and here.

In the woods
The woodland courses at Redwood Valley have been a big hit this year. After tinkering with the format a little I've decided to extend next year's courses by a day to make the experience a little more relaxed and allow plenty of time for creating a beautiful chair. Although the full seven-day course is aimed at making a large Welsh stick chair, I'm open to requests for students who maybe have only time to spend four or five days with me and would like to make something a little smaller. Will, bottom right in the photos above, spent four days with me on my June course and made this lovely little Windsor side chair. Drop me a line at info@benwillis-woodcraft.co.uk if this is something you'd like to do. Otherwise dates for the full courses are at this page.