Richard Jones Furniture

Course content

First-year modules

• Hand-Production Techniques: produce a piece of furniture using only hand tools laying the groundwork for all other making.
• Machine Production Techniques 1: construct an item of furniture using machine woodworking skills almost exclusively; build on the foundations established in the hand production techniques module.
• Design and Prototype: in this final practical module of the academic year you draw together all the skills you have developed through study and practice in other modules to design and make a piece of furniture.
• Wood Finishing: learn the basics of contemporary practical wood finishing techniques, why finishes are applied, how to colour wood, characteristics of different finishes and their appropriateness in different end use circumstances. 
• Timber Technology: it is essential to understand the primary raw material of the craft furniture designer and maker. How  trees grow, their structure,  the difference between angiosperms and gymnosperms, felling, conversion, drying wood, moisture in air and its effect on wood movement, faults in wood, etc.
• Design Elements and Principles: Essential drawing skills, primarily sketching, creating presentation drawings, etc. Develop skills in the design process and design cycle.
• Technical Communication: How do you communicate your final designs to other professionals? Learn how to create orthographic projections (working drawings) using AutoCAD. There are other drafting programs that are effective, but AutoCAD is the industry standard.
• Critical Studies 1: A broad study of the history of art and design; historical furniture design did not happen in isolation. To understand where we have come from we need to place furniture design into context with the rest of art and design history.
• Personal and Professional Development Module 1: An opportunity to develop a personal point of view, whilst looking to your future. Set your own targets to develop as a professional designer and maker.

Second-year modules-- leading to the Foundation Degree in Furniture Making

• Design and Make: depending upon opportunities presented to the college the form of this module may require students to respond to a competition set by an outside body, respond to a live client brief, or work to a college devised brief.    
• Machine Production Techniques 2: This module asks students to look at the possibilities of batch and mass production. They research, design and make a piece or pieces of furniture suited to this form of production.   
• CNC Production: the module introduces students to CNC production techniques. As the cost of this equipment comes down in price  businesses are better able to include CNC work into their workshop. This module runs approximately concurrently with Machine Production Techniques 2 (above). Many students find a synergy between these two modules to satisfy the outcomes of each one.
• Exhibition Piece: at the end of two years of study students propose, justify, design and project manage a substantial piece of work for their end of year show.
• Enterprise Studies: you may be a fine furniture designer and maker, but if you don't understand basic principles of business practice you will find it very hard to survive in business. 
• Critical Studies 2: building on the critical studies undertaken in the previous year students hone their analytical, reflective and critical skills in preparation for their dissertation in year three, or for the world of work. 
• Personal and Professional Development Module 2: students demonstrate refinement of their personal point of view in relation to the furniture studies ready for the next stage of their life.

Third Year Modules-- leading to the BA (Hons) in Furniture Making (from 2010)

• Professional Practice: students propose a course of study. It may be a work experience, a competition brief, a live project, a personal interest in a particular facet of furniture design and making, etc.
• Dissertation: a substantial academically formatted document in which a student demonstrates their advanced ability to research, reason, assimilate, analyse and critique a subject of their choosing.
• Final Major Project: students research, propose, justify, manage and create a major piece of work to demonstrate to the outside world their readiness for life after study.
• Personal and Professional Development Module 3: as with other modules in this final year of study, students propose how they will respond to this module with a view to enhance a subject or personal skill in readiness for the world of work.