Synopsis: Though their furniture is vastly different, Wendell Castle and James Krenov share a refusal to compromise with shortcuts of any kind, a philosophy that they express through books and at their woodworking schools, writes Paul Bertorelli. He visited both schools and found that the men have very different ideas about how students’ exploration should be carried out. Castle, when he started, sought to balance creative and technical aspects of teaching woodworking using a highly structured curriculum. Krenov focused on patient, self-searching students who weren’t interested necessarily in earning a living as a woodworker. Bertorelli details what students at each school experience and what they learn to build. Side information lists contact information for schools around the country.

Any list of designer-craftsmen who work in their own lasting, recognizable styles would be a short one, but both Wendell Castle and James Krenov would surely be near the top. Such is the influence of these two craftsmen that you can hardly attend a woodworking show of any size without seeing pieces that owe much to inspiration from one or the other of these two men.

Castle has since moved on to furniture of a more classical bent, but most people associate him with stacked and bentlaminated wood, boldly sculpted into curvilinear contemporary furniture. Krenov is best known for his delicate, carefully detailed display cabinets and boxes, which he has discussed in four lavishly illustrated books. Though their furniture is vastly different, Castle and Krenov have in common a refusal to compromise to shortcuts of any kind—a philosophy each has expressed through books and by teaching at big-name woodworking schools. Both now head their own schools, Castle at his studio near Rochester, N.Y., and Krenov at the College of the Redwoods in California.

I visited both schools last summer, and later spent some time talking to the students and viewing their work. I learned that although Castle and Krenov share the belief that students should explore their individual possibilities free of compromise, the two men have very different ideas about how that exploration should be carried out.

Since his early days as a struggling designer-craftsman, Wendell Castle has supported his woodworking by teaching, as much out of financial need as for love of the academic discipline. After a couple of decades of not always happy relationships with regular universities, in the fall of 1980 Castle started his own school in the 90-year-old bean mill in Scottsville, N.Y., that has been his studio and residence.

He set out to correct what he saw as the failings of other schools. “They were either heavy on the creative aspects of woodworking or heavy on the technical, but no one offered a good combination,” Castle said. Yet Castle’s years of teaching have led him to conclude that not everyone can be taught to be a good designer—some have the talent and some do not. “I saw a need to train woodworkers who could build the designs of others or work in industry, but if a student doesn’t at least learn what’s involved in design, he is missing something.”

Castle executes his philosophy through a highly structured curriculum, more like that of a large university than a private academy. The two-year program is taught by three full-time and two part-time instructors, including Castle himself, who teaches two days a week. Students can sign on for a third year by proposing, in contract form, their own curriculum.

From Fine Woodworking #39

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