Axminster Tools & Machinery has given its support and endorsement to Rycotewood Furniture Centre’s graduate show In the Making which will showcase work from the country’s only remaining craft-focused undergraduate furniture course. Students from the college have organised the exhibition displaying over 30 unique pieces of handcrafted furniture at the prestigious Furniture Makers’ Hall in London, demonstrating a combination of design and conceptual thinking, communicated through exceptional craftsmanship.

Rycotewood's graduating students
Rycotewood's graduating students

Highly respected in the industry for over 75 years, Rycotewood Furniture Centre (part of the City of Oxford College) aims to nurture creative design and technical craft skills with a focus on working in wood. Rycotewood alumnus and renowned furniture designer Simon Pengelly will introduce the evening at 6.30pm on Tuesday 12 July, though the event will be open from 2pm on that day.

With an approach rooted in making, twelve graduating students from the BA (Hons) Furniture programme will be exhibiting a range of work showing experimentation and creativity though a variety of materials and processes.
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The work on display will illustrate individual responses to projects set throughout the past year including the live brief A Boardroom for Two set by Hands of Wycombe and sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, exploratory personal research projects and a batch production project to produce a small craft object. Each exhibit will represent the journey from idea, through design and development, to a finished piece, beautifully executed to the highest levels of craftsmanship.

The show will be the culmination of three years of training in the field of furniture and is being presented by the students to celebrate making as the core of their practice and to put forward new ideas and concepts to the industry.
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Details of where and when the show will take place are as follows:
Date: Tuesday 12 July 2016
Time: 2.00-8.00pm
Venue: Furniture Makers’ Hall, 12 Austin Friars, London EC2N 2HE
Drinks reception at 6.30pm and introduction by Simon Pengelly

Entry is free and the show is open to all.

Rycotewood is one of the best colleges in the country for furniture courses and Axminster has a long association with its lecturers and students. In November we will be putting on a networking event for education and industry at the college. More details will be released later in the year.