Popular Woodworking 2004-12 № 145, страница 93

Popular Woodworking 2004-12 № 145, страница 93

Adams calls this room the "non-aggressive" bench room. While students have access to the power-tool rooms, they can work on things like furniture design in a quiet atmosphere.

Great Woodshops

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difficult. Two, winter is the only time Adams is able to pursue his personal woodworking projects - Disney-inspired furniture.

Thousands of small, plastic Disney toys are glued to shelves everywhere in the school - they're gifts from those who know Adams well. Adams builds high-end, functional furniture that incorporates Disney characters through carving, marquetry, intarsia and inlay. He doesn't sell the furniture. It's strictly for personal use and pleasure, and he spends hours researching movie clips to depict characters and scenes accurately. His son's carved bed, which looks exactly like the bed the dwarves slept in in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," took 2,000 hours to complete. He and his wife's bed has an exact image from the movie "Pocahontas" inlaid into the headboard. The overall bed has the appearance of stretching pelts. "First and foremost I'm a furniture maker," he says. His father would be proud.

New Teachers and New Classes

Although the three classes are ending today, Adams is meeting with instructors tonight and 100 new students will arrive tomorrow. Adams, whose house is located next to the school, says some days people are on the property at 5 a.m. The hours are long and it's a seven-days-a-week job. "There's no way an average person could do that," he says. "I've been OK with it - but it's taken me 10 years to be OK with it."

Adams's wife, Susie, along with his mom, Doris, also work at the school, preparing the

students' lunches each day. Adams says his two young children have become accustomed to the loss of privacy. "When my son and I play basketball, I have three to four guys making fun of me when I miss a shot," Adams says. But he adds that the children appreciate the people they've met - professors, lawyers, doctors and movie stars. "We're trying to learn who we are and what we've become," Adams says. "We're trying to appreciate and accept."

Next year will be the school's biggest year yet. However, Adams says with the new addition, the school has reached its limit in terms of size. But no new growth doesn't mean no new change.

For four years the school has offered a Masters program. Students must take eight one-week classes plus a two-week apprenticeship class. Students who complete the program

receive $1,000 worth of power tools from Bosch. (Adams hastens to note that manufacturers don't sponsor any of these programs - rather the gifts are something the manufacturers do on their own free will.) This year, Adams introduced a new Fellowship program, which is open to students who complete the Masters program. Students must take eight more one-week classes, plus a complete two-week artist-in-residency. Students who become Fellows receive a Delta Unisaw.

Along with the introduction of new programs, every year Adams strives to find new instructors and offer new classes. In 2005 he plans to offer 125 workshops, 100 of which will be different. Perhaps this is why he enjoys a 95 percent return rate. Perhaps this is why the students today are already talking about the classes they hope to take, next year. PW

A student works on an intarsia project in another bench room. Instructor Graham Blackburn (right) works with student Jack Killia on

furniture design.

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100 Popular Woodworking December 2004