ELEVATOR PITCH
The Austin School of Furniture + Design is a woodworking and furniture school located in East Austin. Austin School of Furniture + Design, or ASFD, is focused on passing down the traditional craft of woodworking and fostering a fun, safe and creative environment for the next generation of furniture makers.
Austin School of Furniture + Design strives to teach the traditions and historical techniques of furniture construction while embracing advances in design, technology and modern woodworking. Hand tools to computer-aided machinery are all used to cover a broad understanding of both the past and future of furniture making.
OUR STORY
The idea for Austin School of Furniture + Design was born in 2017 after it became evident that Austinites were looking for another high-level resource for woodworking education. This insight came from countless conversations held at the monthly meetings of the Woodworking Social Club, a 500+ member Meetup group that gets together once a month to enjoy a cold beer, shop tours, demonstrations and lively chats around woodworking.
ASFD officially launched in early 2018 by partnering with talented furniture makers like Leslie Webb, Aaron Fox, Philip Morley and Shota Yamaguchi to build out its initial curriculum and begin teaching. Sharing space within the community woodshop, ToolMarks ATX, helped to get the ball rolling with classes.
After about a year, ASFD had doubled its offerings and employees and was ready for larger space. In January of 2019, Austin School of Furniture + Design moved into its own dedicated space within a larger 22,000sf maker collective called Splinter Group. Splinter Group is home to some 15+ furniture makers as well as metal workers, potters, painters, jewelers and even a cobbler. ASFD is now running classes of varying skill levels and lengths of time throughout the week and has begun to bring in guest teachers from around the United States.
THE FUTURE
With the help from its yearly fundraising event, the Texas Woodworking Festival, ASFD hopes to continue to grow within Central Austin. There are plans to eventually move into an even larger space, launch the full-time Apprenticeship Program and add additional components to further educate and support the woodworking community. This could include educational online content, lumber sales, woodworking supplies, a community makerspace and rentable studios.
