Hello to friends and fellow wooodworking enthusiasts. Here’s
some information on the woodworking class that so many of you have
expressed interest in attending.
Wildewoods offers an extensive woodworking class for
beginners and novices. This class meets week nights and teaches
participants how to read a scale ruler, do scaled design drawings,
and teaches the safe use of most major shop equipment as well as
all small power tools. During the course of this intensive class
each participant builds their own piece of furniture starting with
rough sawn lumber and finishing with a beautiful handmade piece
of furniture of their own design. Please contact Wildewoods for
further information regarding this class.
General Objectives: 
First and foremost, Have fun! Our lives are already filled to the
brim with obligations and responsibilities. If you are doing woodworking
as a hobby and want to learn more, so that you can get greater enjoyment
from this pursuit you don’t want it to feel like work, you want
it to be fun. Therefore, having fun will be our first objective in
this class.
Secondly, we want to gain knowledge. As the great artist, Michael
Angelo said "I am still learning." I can tell you from first
hand experience, I have been working with wood for the last 25 years
and I still seem to learn something new everyday. It will be my task
to provide you with as much knowledge in the area in woodworking as
possible within the context of this class. I have never had the luxury
of having a teacher to apprentice with, although, many times I wished
I could have. The difference between learning how to perform a task
by reading an article in a magazine versus having someone that knows
how to do it teaching you first hand is enormous. I’m sure many
of you have had the same experience.
Lastly, we should get to produce a finished piece of furniture as
a result of and an outcome of this class.
The class is an extensive learning experience for beginning
and intermediate woodworkers. Here are some of the things that will
be covered in the context of this course:Learn how to do design drawings.
Read and use a scale ruler.
Learn how to safely use most of the major shop equipment
including jointer, planer, drill press, table saw, and band saw.
Learn how to use and maintain hand and small power tools
effectively.
Learn how to take lumber from the rough sawn state and
convert it into pieces and parts of furniture.
Learn how to take these pieces and parts and convert
them into a finished piece of furniture. 
During this course, we will design and build a piece
of furniture from start to finish. Everyone in the class will build
a similar piece based on general class consensus. For example: it
may be a dining table, cabinet, desk, or whatever the class agrees
that they all want to build. The course will last 10 weeks. We will
meet 2 evenings per week, for 2 hours, Monday-Thursday, typically
starting at 7 pm and ending at 9 pm. The 2 nights that we choose to
meet will be based on greatest participant consensus. The cost of
the course is $700 payable prior to the start of the class. Once the
course begins, this money is non-refundable. The class cost does not
include the cost of the wood that you choose to use to build your
piece of furniture, but everything else will be provided, with the
exception of your own tape measure.
If you are interested in participating in the upcoming
course, please email or snail mail me your information including name,
address, and phone number. Please give me a few pieces of information
with your response:
1. Tell me about any woodworking experience you currently
have.
2. What shop machinery do you have or have used?
3. What are your goals for your own woodworking activities?
4. What machinery do you want to learn more about?
5. Do you have any specific project or furniture that
you’re interested in building?
6. What would be the best 2 nights of the week for you
to participate?
Obviously, all of our lives are busy and complicated.
Don’t worry if you can’t attend every class. I will make
available to you opportunities to catch up missed information from
classes you can’t participate in.
This course is a great deal of fun and a wonderful learning
experience. All former participants have enjoyed the course immensely
whether or not they continued to work with wood on a regular basis.
I’m excited about having the opportunity to work with you all
and help further your knowledge and love of beautiful things made
from wood.
I can be reached Monday-Friday, 8-4:30, at my shop.
The phone number is 985-386-4243.
My email address is wildewoods@bellsouth.net
and physical address is 1108 Hwy 51 N., Ponchatoula, LA 70454.
Sincerely,
Terry Wilde
Woodworking
Classes