Learn chairmaking with David Upfill-Brown and Phoebe Everill
Above: David Upfill-Brown with Phoebe Everill
For the woodworker, learning to make chairs brings a new set of challenges where expert guidance is invaluable.
In late February 2025, an opportunity to attend a 10 day immersion into the world of chairmaking exists at Phoebe Everill’s school in Drummond, Victoria. Acclaimed designer maker and teacher David Upfill-Brown along with Phoebe Everill will teach chair design and prototyping course.
David Upfill-Brown trained in the UK at Parnham under Robert Ingham. After migrating to Australia in 1982 with his wife Hermione, he ran his own bespoke workshop at Tharwa near Canberra, teaching there and also at the ANU Canberra School of Art Wood Workshop with George Ingham.
David Upfill-Brown runs his eye over a student's work in the bench room at Phoebe Everill's school in Drummond, Victoria.
Following that, David was the inaugural academic director of the Australian School of Fine Furniture in Tasmania in 2000 and taught there for four years before relocating to Maine, USA for five years as lead instructor of the nine month comprehensive at Centre for Furniture Craftsmanship. In addition, David has taught at Sturt School for Wood in Mittagong, NSW and at the Centre for Fine Woodworking in Nelson, NZ.
In 2025, David Upfill-Brown and Phoebe Everill will once again teach a 10-day course which promises an immersion into the world of chairmaking. The course is limited to six makers and will cover:
• Drawing your design in full scale
• The ergonomics of chair design
• How to choose and construct joinery for a well-made chair
• Building a prototype of your design to inform the making process
• Developing jigs and formers of your chair components
• How to make repetition efficient
Phoebe Everill’s school is located in central Victoria on a working farm and offers a fully equipped machine room and separate bench room with all hand tools supplied.
Images supplied by Phoebe Everill
Learn more at www.phoebeeverill.com