A time and a place
Derek Jones began working with antique furniture at the age of fourteen as a Saturday boy in a restoration workshop in Brighton. What followed was a couple of decades of design and commercial manufacture within the industry for retail customers and end users. Nearly forty years later, and the skills acquired back in that little workshop have become an important part of his working methodology today; good construction and a careful choice of materials with a nod to the past.
As editor of the UK’s premier woodworking magazine, Furniture & Cabinetmaking (2008- 2018), Derek Jones managed to combine his flare for making with a passion for sharing a range of skills that if not practiced might one day no longer be part of our lives. Time spent making things by hand today is perhaps the single most important investment we can make for our future. Make things well and build them to last using materials and techniques that compliment our natural resources.
Why the Lowfat?
“I’ve experienced workshops kitted out with every convenience imaginable but it turns out the one that’s most efficient and the most fun to work in is the one that’s pared back. It’s a workshop where hand tools and power tools are allowed to work together, there’s no hierarchy and no excess.”
Knowledge through participation
There’s only so much you can learn from books and videos, even really good books, so I have developed a range of classes that are designed to put simple basic skills and techniques back in the hands of craftsmen like you and me. In some cases there’s no right or wrong way just ways that work and the simpler the better. After all, why learn ‘complicated’ when ‘simple’ works just as well?
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