About the School
The London School of Furniture Making has taught woodworking to adults since 2013. Meet our founder, Helen Welch, and the instructors who teach here.
Helen Welch, Founder
In 2013, I opened the doors of the London School of Furniture Making with a focus on the needs of amateur makers and people eager to learn woodworking without committing to long college or university courses, especially those who aren't looking for a qualification but somewhere relaxed and fairly informal. While the workshops are fun and light-hearted, that doesn't mean the classes are anything less than rigorous and challenging. Craft done well asks a lot of the doer, and so does my teaching style and, by extension, that of my colleagues. The fundamental mission of the LSF is to raise awareness of how learning a craft can profoundly enrich our lives at every stage, from youth to retirement.
With over forty years of experience spanning construction, furniture making, guitar making and forestry, I've accumulated a diverse range of industry qualifications that sadly nobody has ever asked to see. What matters most is that I'm a passionate advocate of woodworking, a tool collector, a tinkerer, a lifelong learner and an enthusiastic reader of all things craft. More importantly, I've spent the last three decades teaching countless adults how to find mental wellbeing and empowerment through working with their hands.
In 2024, I became a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, the livery company and charity dedicated to the furniture-making industry. This lets me help promote our craft across all sectors of society. Over the last four years, I've been honoured to serve on the judging panel for the New Furniture Maker Awards, an annual event at Furniture Makers' Hall and the Dutch Church. It's a privilege to see and support emerging talent while giving back to the industry.
My work with the LSF has led to television and radio interviews, and joining Domestika as one of their expert instructors has let me share the message about how important crafts are with a wider audience.
A New Chapter for the School
August 2025 marked an exciting and emotional milestone as the school moved from its long-standing home in Tottenham to a larger, self-contained studio in Camden. Tottenham was instrumental in the school's journey, from teaching just three students per class to welcoming seven, and I'm deeply grateful for the support of my colleagues along the way. Their encouragement gave me the confidence to take this next step.
The move to Camden is more than a change of address; it feels like coming full circle. I began my woodworking career at seventeen in Camden, training first with Splinter Group in Kentish Town and later completing an apprenticeship with the local council. Returning to the area to grow the school feels like a true homecoming.
Our new space spans two floors and lets us run two classes at once. It also opens up more opportunities for one-to-one sessions and supervised access days. We have a small but functional machining area that students can use during classes, with the usual machines scaled down to fit in a shed or garage, so you can picture how they'd fit in a compact space: a surface planer, thicknesser, bandsaw, mitre saw, drill press and portable table saw.
I'm excited to expand our courses, welcome new students and instructors, and collaborate with the talented makers in our arch community. Our neighbours are Fallen & Felled, suppliers of truly sustainable hardwoods, and furniture designer-makers Wilkinson & Rivera. Both moved from Blackhorse Workshop to set up self-contained businesses at the Hartland Road Arches, so this is a new departure for us all.
I hope you'll be part of this next chapter too.
Press
Lost Art Press
The late, great Nancy Hiller and I discuss my background and life in woodwork.
Makers Cabinet
I get to do a show and tell with my favourite tools.
Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker
Judge alongside Alex de Rijke on series 1 of Channel 4's woodworking competition.
The Times
I chat with journalist Harry Wallop while trying to teach him a few woodworking basics.
Domestika
Catch me in action teaching dovetail joints and box making.
Words on Wood Podcast
John Makepeace and I talk about how we came to set up our furniture schools.
Yours for the Making Podcast
Robin Johnson and I talk about the financial challenges of a career in making.
Our Instructors
Sam Brown
In a former life, Sam was a professional photographer, but he retrained as a furniture maker some 25 years ago. When he's not teaching for us, he's in Japan, working on his Japanese joinery skills. Sam's experience spans built-in cabinetry, dining tables, gentlemen's valets and credenzas. Having run his own business for years, he understands all too well the challenges that beset small companies and what it takes to survive. His devotion to high-quality work marks him out as a true professional.
Emma Chesterman
Emma became a teacher and furniture maker as a direct result of attending the London School of Furniture Making many moons ago. After the Dovetailed Box course, she went on to a two-year fine furniture making course and started her own furniture-making business.
"Helen's passion for and extensive furniture-making knowledge made me want to do this every day."
Emma began teaching alongside making, bringing her everyday skills and problem-solving to helping new and occasional makers find their feet. She understands the joys and challenges of working with wood and loves helping her students discover theirs.
Kevin Hutson
My love of wood began with a five-year carpentry and joinery apprenticeship at a well-established company in Brighton, East Sussex, after which I passed my City & Guilds and Advanced City & Guilds at Brighton College of Technology. A period as a freelance draughtsman for an architectural joinery design company gave me the skill to draw 3D designs.
I have been woodturning for 50 years, 39 of them professionally. My work has ranged from large structural oak columns and square-edged salad bowls for Harrods and John Lewis (500 or more, I think) to large circular mirror frames, 90cm to 130cm across, for the American market. With that experience, I began giving demonstrations to woodturning associations and societies across the country, and in 2020 I was made an honorary member of the Ash Down Woodturning Association in East Sussex.
I also love art, which I've started to bring into more creative woodturning, with an emphasis on the aesthetics and movement within the wood. This has become my full-time passion, influenced by sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and David Nash, and by another of my interests, Japanese architecture and costume. Over the years, I've built good relationships with top craft galleries throughout the UK, which now buy and exhibit my work.
My workshop is on the Borde Hill estate in West Sussex, where I've enjoyed woodturning for the last 28 years and teach my craft one to one.
Brandon Harrison
Brandon is a fine furniture maker who trained at the Sturt Craft Centre in Australia and at Yacademy in Italy. His work has been recognised at Craft + Design Canberra, Vivid Furniture Design in Melbourne and the Clarence Furniture Prize. He makes heirloom-quality pieces and brings the same careful thinking about design and construction to his teaching, including steam bending.
Saena Ku
Saena grew up in Seoul, near the royal palace, and studied interior design before deciding she wanted a more hands-on life. After moving to London in 1996, a chance visit to an exhibition on picture frames at the National Portrait Gallery set her on the path to carving. She trained in Historic Ornamental Woodcarving and Gilding at the City & Guilds of London Art School, graduating in 2000.
Saena has worked on restoration for the antiques and heritage sector, and her projects include gilding at the Tower of London for Historic Royal Palaces, carving at New College and Oriel College in Oxford, work for several London livery companies, and carving for the Queen's barge at the Diamond Jubilee. Her contemporary commissions have included work for Penguin Books, Guinness and fashion designers. She has taught woodcarving at City & Guilds and set up the woodcarving and letter-cutting evening class at the Building Crafts College. In 2014 she founded The Woodcarving Studio, specialising in architectural and figurative carving, letter cutting, restoration and gilding.
Ed Alves
Ed has more than 25 years' experience in all aspects of furniture and product design and manufacture. He began in the early 1990s with an apprenticeship at John Fischer Furniture in New York, one of the city's most highly regarded bespoke furniture makers. In 2001 he moved to London to manage projects and make custom furniture at Pearl Dot, then helped set up the Furniture Works project at London Guildhall University (later London Met).
Ed is known for his attention to detail and for listening closely to what his clients need. He runs his own furniture studio from a workshop in Walthamstow.
Come and Learn with Us
From a two-and-a-half-hour taster to a four-week immersive course, there's a class for every stage.