Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The goal of this course is to provide students of Interior Design and other related programs, including student at the high-school level the opportunity to apply intermediate wood working skills.  This opportunity will result in the design and creation of a custom piece of furniture.

Upon completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Ideate and communicate the design of a custom piece of wood furniture.
2. Completely fabricate a custom piece of furniture of their own design.
3. Demonstrate intermediate skills in woodworking such as the use of surfacer, table saw, band saw, and finishers.
4.  Operate all power tools, hand tools and machinery to a best practices industry safety standard.

Students will design their own piece of furniture that meets the strict guidelines to enforce safely, and feasibility.

All students will focus on the development (not necessarily fabricate) of a piece of seating made of wood

Out-of-class assignments will involve researching unique examples of custom made solid hardwood furniture, including seating.

Instructional delivery will consist of in-studio demonstrations, one on one guidance, and team-focused teachable investigations

1. Self Reflection: Students will be required to self-critique their final piece using a rubric developed by the instructor

2. Peer review: students will engage in group design critiques throughout the course

3. Instructor evaluation: the instructor will conduct strict evaluation of machinery and tool mastery to ensure safety and student success.

Concepts:

Attitudinal approach to functioning safely in a furniture studio environment

Skill development while operating professional grade woodworking machinery

Themes:

Successful construction of fine furniture pieces from raw lumber

Applying appropriate level of precision in construction of custom furniture