Writings
Writings
I send out an occasional newsletter, including:
- An article on cabinetmaking, craftsmanship and design
- Updates on work and pieces available
- Upcoming Courses
Introductory Articles
Hi, I’m Stephen Hickman. I make unique pieces of handmade furniture, and I teach others to do the same. I pursue the craft as an art. To do this, I run a modern form of an atelier - an artist’s teaching workshop.
At the heart of everything I make is a celebration of three aspects: Luxurious hardwood, contemporary design and heirloom-quality craftsmanship. It is in drawing these together, in balancing these three elements, that a piece of my furniture is born.
For those seeking to try their hand at woodworking, this is for you. Specifically, it is for you if you only have limited available space, but would love to make beautiful things out of wood.
The toolmaker will want to sell you every tool under the sun. But even if they look bright and shiny in the sunlight. You don’t need them all.
Essential Tool Kit
Flatness. Squareness. Smoothness. No twist. These are words that make cabinetmaker’s happy. Wood, you see, is a capricious material. It doesn’t come in lumps like clay, or billets but to specific sizes like steel. It comes in trees.
When you start using hand tools, you’ll begin to develop a minor obsession with your chisels. Or, ahem, at least I did. There is something about the fact that the chisel is such a personal tool. When you use a chisel for paring work, the steel is literally millimetres from your fingertips.
I need to be honest here. Almost all of my sawing is done on the machines. Now, of course, you can do all your sawing by hand if you want. But in this article we will concern ourselves with the few precision hand saws you’ll need at your bench.
When we think of a woodwork toolkit, we tend to only consider things that will cut. But a significant part of my toolkit, both in terms of size and importance, is a well-chosen selection of precision measuring and marking tools. Tools I can trust to deliver the accuracy I need.
Journal
I am an early riser. I get up early to lay hold of that time before the world is awake. Before I am truly awake. A perfect time for writing.
Next weekend, the Sylva Wood Centre opens for Oxfordshire Artweeks. In the lead up, I am considering my offerings, those items I am going to sell on my stall.
This week my work has been focused on smaller items: chopping boards, tea-light holders, door stops. This is a new venture for me. Previously I have just shown furniture. But I have realised the power of thinking small.
Saturday 27th April 2024 ~ At the end of last year, I said that I was taking a couple of weeks hiatus from writing this newsletter. And that was four months ago. Oops!
Saturday 16th December 2023 ~ It’s ten o’clock on Friday evening. Usually I have a routine - come back form the workshop, eat dinner, then write the newsletter. But I got a bit distracted. I was playing my guitar.
Saturday 9th December 2023 ~ Ateliers were communities of learning, where skills were passed from master-to-student, who then went on to become masters themselves. To learn to make furniture, I studied at Rowden Atelier.
Saturday 2nd December 2023 ~ After the lofty heights of alchemy is last week’s newsletter, let’s ground ourselves again and get back to the toolkit.
Saturday 24th November 2023 ~ The magnum opus of the ancient alchemists was in seeking to create the ‘philosopher’s stone’. This stone would, as legend had it, turn base metals into gold, heal any wound, and serve as the elixir of life - bestowing immortality upon the possessor.
Saturday 18th November 2023 ~ Whenever a woodworker strays from the conventional square-and-straight pieces and into the realm of curved or shaped work, you’ll inevitably hear the cry, “Oh, well it’s not really furniture, is it. It’s more like art furniture”.
Saturday 11th November 2023 ~ I am not much of a fan of TV drama, and I don’t usually have the attention span for a feature-length film, but I love programmes about ancient tribes and lost civilisations. My current indulgence is an old BBC series called Tribe.
Saturday 4th November 2023 ~ When I was first starting out, I was at a complete loss as to what to buy. The toolmonger wanted to sell me so many tools that it was overwhelming. I mean - how many different bench planes, block planes, shoulder planes, scraper planes and moulding planes does a maker actually need?
Saturday 28th October 2023 ~ Autumn is by far my favourite season. Many of the days are still bright. The skies remain clear and the sun still shines. But the air has a sharpness to it. A certain bite that just catches the back of the neck. Perfect weather for walking.
Saturday 21st October 2023 ~ When I tell people I make furniture, the usual response is something along the lines of, "Oh, like...using dovetails?” Dovetails were once the method de-facto to join two pieces of wood at right angles, and indeed there are examples of their use stretching back as far as Ancient Egypt.
Saturday 14th October 2023 ~ I was listening to a maker talking about his journey. He made fine fitted furniture and worked for architects and designers to realise their designs. One of his architect clients asked him, “Should I be expecting handmade perfection from you?” To which his answer was, “No. You should expect handmade imperfection”.
Saturday 7th October 2023 ~ “What on earth are you doing?” is the more family-friendly version of the question that I was asked by various people walking past, as I stood there, headphones on (a high-tempo drum and bass playist), throwing paint at canvasses, cardboard, old pieces of sheet material - anything I could lay my hands on.
Saturday 30th September 2023 ~ In a world full of commodities, I seek a celebration. I seek a celebration of the natural beauty of wood. Grains might be subtle or strong, from gently meandering to truly haphazard. And then there is colour.
Saturday 23rd September 2023 ~ Woodwork was always a calling for me. Something I craved with my entire being - body, mind and soul.
Saturday 9th September 2023 ~ Fundamental to life is breathing: without breath there is no life. The most basic meditation technique is to focus merely on your own breath. Breathe in...breathe out, remembering that you are alive in this moment.
Saturday 2nd September 2023 ~ For anyone who has genuinely engaged with the incredible AI tools that have been released over the last couple of months, it is impossible not to be a little phased. Artificial intelligence is taking on white collar administrative and creative professions at an alarming rate.
Saturday 26th August 2023 ~ When I design my pieces, I want them to fit into a modern home. So I frequently turn to Dieter Rams’ Ten principles of good design as a set of guidelines when developing a clean, modern aesthetic.
The Apprentice Notebook
The Apprentice Notebook was a blog I kept during my training at Rowden. Read a few articles here, or click here to see the blog in its entirety.
A useful tool to use in design is a question to explore throughout the work. A question provides a focus beyond the specifics of a piece, and can sort of reach in and pull it further along than you might take it alone.
Veneering has gotten a bad rap throughout history, frequently being seen as a cheap substitute for 'real wood'. In the hands of a cabinetmaker, veneer is used in a much more considered way than just making a product ‘on the cheap’.
What is it about wood that captivates us? Modern materials abound, yet so often we return to wood when seeking a 'certain something' in our furniture. Certainly the life found in a board of timber draws in many - the grain, the colours, that close feel to the natural world.
There is both an artistic and a technical side to what we do here at Rowden. Our drawings from the natural world form the essential 'vocabulary' that influences our designs, and we are encouraged to draw frequently. However, when it comes to actually making a piece, we switch firmly into technical gear.