The Ebanista School of Fine Woodworking was founded to bring a school capable of offering the highest level of instruction in the design and making of inspired furniture to the Pacific Northwest. Those skills, once attained, will afford any student the foundation to expand into limitless other areas of interest, such as cabinetmaking, instrument making, boatbuilding, fine carpentry, and even the ability to carry design skills and precision into vastly different disciplines.
The instructors, all specialists in certain aspects of this work, are dedicated and experienced. Each brings a minimum of 40 years experience as a professional woodworker. We are all excited to pass on our knowledge to a new generation, of all ages, of designers and makers.
Ebanista is located in the Georgetown area of Seattle. It is fully equipped and houses both a school and a professional furniture studio. Classes began in the fall of 2018.
Ebanista was founded as an answer to so many requests over the years for a school of this caliber. Class size will be intentionally limited to foster maximum attention on students. You are encouraged to find your place early.
Ebanista in Spanish means “fine woodworker”. Y tanto.
“Wood is an imperfect material. Which, to my mind, makes it the perfect material.
It is far more tempestuous and fickle than metal or glass, or clay, for example. These tend to have somewhat predictable tones, and foreseeable densities and movements. Working with them one is prone to calculable results. A piece of steel forged in Pittsburgh is nearly indistinguishable from one made in Beijing or in Bosnia. But a piece of wood, even if it comes from the other side of the very same tree, often varies greatly in hue and density and in temperament.
The other materials are like a companion who is, well, companionable. But wood is as a fiery dance partner, with flashing eyes and wildly athletic movements, who can explode off the walls one moment, and then mellow into a soft balletic repose. Working in glass might leave one satisfied. The end result with wood is much more akin to exaltation.
Just ask yourself: would you dine with someone over a cold slab of glass or over an ungiving hard steel, or a coarse ceramic slab? Or, would you prefer the sensuous experience that is a smooth, warm piece of timber that is hand planed and finished to a sumptuous perfection?
Wood is like we humans: infinitely variable, and therein lies its beauty.”
– From a Google talk given by Jonathan Cohen, Seattle 2016
