Courses at Joint

This isn’t just about learning to make things.
It’s about understanding the material, the process, and the pace.

Our core in-house courses are built around timber, tools, and time well spent. Some start in the workshop, others begin out in the woods—getting to know the tree before it ever becomes a piece of work.

Expect hands-on making across a range of disciplines:
stool and chair making, steam bending, specialist joint making, and refined hand skills.
From shaping green wood to crafting precise picture frames, each course focuses on doing things properly—slowly, thoughtfully, and with intent.

We’re also developing a series of tree-led courses, where each one explores a single species in depth.
Ash, oak and more—understanding their character, their quirks, and how to work with them at their best.

A Maker’s Year

A slower, deeper way into craft.

A Makers’s Year is our long-form course—designed for those who feel the pull to make, but want to do it properly. Over a series of weekends across the year, you’ll move beyond surface-level skills and into a more considered, confident way of working.

This is not about ticking off techniques.
It’s about developing a relationship with the material, the tools, and the process itself.

You’ll begin with the fundamentals—learning how to handle tools with precision, how to read timber, how to work with intention rather than force. From there, the course opens out into more complex making: joinery, shaping, steam bending, and material selection—each step building towards your own final piece.

There’s a shift that happens over time.
Hands become steadier. Decisions become clearer. The work becomes your own. The work slows down. Your judgement sharpens. You begin to trust your hands.

Working in a small group, with guidance from experienced tutors, you’ll be given the space to slow down, focus, and properly engage with the craft. Not rushed. Not diluted.

By the end, you won’t just leave with a finished object.
You’ll leave with a new way of seeing, thinking, and making.

And the confidence to continue long after the course is over.

A Maker’s Year has grown out of the spirit and foundations of Journey to Making, a course originally founded by Nick Kary. Nick’s approach to teaching and making — grounded, thoughtful, generous, and rooted in doing things properly — has helped shape the structure and ethos of this programme.

While A Maker’s Year is now developing its own identity at Joint, it remains connected to that original lineage. Nick continues to be involved in an advisory role, helping guide the course as it evolves into a year-long journey of making, learning, confidence-building, and deeper connection with material, process, and craft.

Beyond Wood

While timber sits at the heart of what we do, it’s not the whole story.

We’re beginning to introduce a small number of courses that step outside of woodwork—exploring crafts that sit alongside it. Leatherwork, upholstery, and other material-led practices that share the same values: patience, precision, and a respect for the process.

These aren’t add-ons.
They’re part of a wider conversation about making.

You might find yourself stitching a simple leather wallet, understanding how materials come together in a chair, or learning the fundamentals of working with textiles and soft structures. Different materials, different tools—but the same considered approach.

Like everything at Joint, these courses will be small, focused, and led by people who know their craft properly.

They’ll appear quietly, in limited runs, throughout the year.

Worth keeping an eye out.

The Tree Series

Most woodworking courses start with a prepared board.
Ours don’t always.

The Tree Series is about working with timber at its source—understanding not just how to use it, but why it behaves the way it does. Each course focuses on a single species, exploring its structure, strengths, limitations, and character.

Beginning with a woodland walk—looking at how the tree grows, where it thrives, and how that affects the material in your hands. From there, it moves into the workshop: splitting, shaping, testing, and making.

Examples of whats to come:

Ash: Bend & Form
Flexible, responsive, alive in the hand.
Ash lends itself to steam bending and working green—flexible, forgiving, and strong in tension. Shaping with the grain rather than against it.

Oak: Fire & Finish
Dense, reactive, full of character.
Oak is durable, has a high tannin content, and is suited to processes like ebonising, charring, or ammonia fuming.—using chemistry and heat to reveal depth.

These courses are about reading the material properly:

• understanding grain direction rather than fighting it

• knowing when timber wants to bend, split, or hold firm

• understand which finishes work well with what woods

• selecting the right process for the right species

It’s a quieter, more attentive way of making—but a far more capable one.

The end result isn’t just a finished piece.
It’s a deeper instinct for the material itself.

Understory

Not everything we offer is about making.

Understory is a series of talks, walks, and small gatherings exploring the world beneath the craft—woodlands, forestry, fungi, and rewilding. It’s about understanding the material at its source, and the systems it’s part of.

Slower, quieter, and just as essential.