Furniture Design & Woodworking
The Furniture Design & Woodworking program at Anderson Ranch draws upon the world of studio furniture, but pushes the boundaries of woodworking by mixing contemporary and traditional techniques and incorporating alternative materials. Summer 2021 offers an inspiring range of workshops for all levels in topics such as cabinetry, wood bending, kinetics and carving.
The Maloof Wood Barn, divided into a machine room, assembly room, and bench room, provides participants the ideal workshop for realizing technical and creative goals. The machine room houses stationary equipment including SawStop table saws, jointers, planers, bandsaws, drill presses, edge sander, disk sander, drum sander, spindle sander, mortiser, radial arm saw, chop saw, router table and multi-router. In the assembly and bench rooms, a library of clamps, hand tools, and hand-held power tools line the walls for student use to complete their woodworking projects.

Leah Aegerter
Studio Coordinator, Digital Fabrication
Leah Aegerter is an artist working in object-based sculpture, furniture and installation. She received a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 and is the Studio Coordinator for Digital Fabrication at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Preferred Pronouns: She/Her







Anderson Ranch Campus
Upcoming Workshops>

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Open to All
Students of any skill and knowledge level, but have some computer skills.
Jun 6 - 10, 2022
9AM-5PM
Carving Techniques: Digital and Analog
Emma Senft
Tuition $995
Code W0101-22
Learn the process of designing, fabricating and hand-carving a sculptural wooden panel. Students use the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router to cut initial shapes and planes into the wood, then complete the form and detail the surface with rotary tools and carving chisels. Demonstrations include digital-file preparation, the basics of milling rough lumber and laminating larger solid wood boards for carving. Students explore the juxtaposition of digital and analog methodologies and think about how a practice can balance screen time and automated tools with haptic processes.

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Level I
Students are new to Furniture Design & Woodworking and have no formal training.
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Level II
Students have experience working with stationary machines and power tools and are familiar with basic principles of joinery and 3-D design.
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Level III
Students have some formal training in 3-D design, experience with a variety of materials and fabrication processes, and know how to use machine and hand tools competently and safely. Students have a portfolio of their artwork.
Jun 6 - 17, 2022
9AM-5PM
Upholstery: Bulk, Bulges and Raw Edges
Tina Ortman
Tuition $1,250
Code W0102-22
The art of upholstery is visual, tactile and logistical. This workshop presents the tools, techniques and materials used to create and restore upholstered furniture. Students strip a piece to the frame, which reveals how it was constructed. Participants then reverse the process, building the layers back up to recreate the original or modify with new flourishes. Students bring a piece of furniture approved by the instructor. The unique challenges of each piece are used to teach the whole class the many variations of the craft.

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Open to All
Students of any skill and knowledge level, but have some computer skills.
Jun 13 - 17, 2022
9AM-5PM
Object as Atlas
Mark Tan, Leah Aegerter
Tuition $995
Code W0203-22
The archives are where memories are stored and history is made, but how does one redefine the archive? This workshop investigates the major shift of archiving through analog and digital processes. Drawing from memory, personal narratives, emotions and perceptions are used to manipulate ideas and data into new objects and map a new history. Using both traditional woodworking processes and innovative digital fabrication techniques, students reconstruct and deconstruct archives transforming them into objects of origin with a meaning, purpose and fragmented identity.