Thanks! This is going to sound absurdly short-sighted, but I haven't yet figured out exactly how I'm going to parlay my to-be acquired skills into income.
I've talked to a number of people who are professional woodworkers, and they all make their living a little differently. One guy I've talked to does primarily architectural woodwork, but also does furniture commissions, a couple people do repair and restoration in addition to commissions. A guy not far from my sister-in-law's house does a lot of clock restoration (both cases and movements), as well as furniture work. Pete Galbert seems to make a living largely doing Windsor chairs on commission and teaching classes on making them (and he's an outstanding teacher). He also wrote a series of blog posts about doing woodworking professionally [0].
The school I'll be attending is the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts[1]. The owner, Phillip Lowe, does restoration and commission work as well as teaching classes, and I'm hoping to learn a little bit about how he goes about drumming up business in the course of my schooling there.
In the short term, after finishing, I'm hoping to find either a cooperative shop or an established business to work in for a few years, eventually, I'd probably like to have my own shop doing largely commission work.
In the very short term, my partner is going to continue working her full time job, and I hope that my current company will take me back over the summer.
I've talked to a number of people who are professional woodworkers, and they all make their living a little differently. One guy I've talked to does primarily architectural woodwork, but also does furniture commissions, a couple people do repair and restoration in addition to commissions. A guy not far from my sister-in-law's house does a lot of clock restoration (both cases and movements), as well as furniture work. Pete Galbert seems to make a living largely doing Windsor chairs on commission and teaching classes on making them (and he's an outstanding teacher). He also wrote a series of blog posts about doing woodworking professionally [0].
The school I'll be attending is the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts[1]. The owner, Phillip Lowe, does restoration and commission work as well as teaching classes, and I'm hoping to learn a little bit about how he goes about drumming up business in the course of my schooling there.
In the short term, after finishing, I'm hoping to find either a cooperative shop or an established business to work in for a few years, eventually, I'd probably like to have my own shop doing largely commission work.
In the very short term, my partner is going to continue working her full time job, and I hope that my current company will take me back over the summer.
[0] http://chairnotes.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-woodworker-... http://chairnotes.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-woodworker-... http://chairnotes.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-woodworker-...
[1] http://furnituremakingclasses.com/