Wood School

Products

The learning on our professional course is brought to life by working on real live projects. These have been established through high-quality partnerships creating the perfect balance between education and commercial reality. We have created a professionally-equipped workshop and use the repetition of low volume production as a vehicle to develop practical skills.

We offer a making service for designers and manufacturers; who have products that cannot be integrated into their own production, who wish to test out low-volume production in home-grown timber, who are interested in supporting education and social enterprise. We also work in collaboration with timber suppliers/woodland owners to find value in their own timber and demonstrate viability of a local model for home-grown supply. We can provide design development support to our partners in a variety of ways to generate outcomes that combine our shared aims.

If you wish to learn more or informally discuss potential opportunities for collaboration please contact us at woodschool@sylva.org.uk

Drayton Hive

Andrew Bax contacted us in 2020 with a prototype hive that he was keen to develop for low volume production. We worked together to production engineer the hive; developing his design to make it suitable for our production methods. We explored the potential of using home-grown Western Red Cedar and Oak for the cladding and framework respectively. The first batch was manufactured in spring 2021.draytonbeehive.com

University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum

In 2014 an iconic black pine (Pinus nigra) growing at the Botanic Garden in central Oxford split in half and had to be felled. Planted c 1830, this much loved tree was known to many as ‘Tolkien’s pine’ as it was a favourite of JRR Tolkien who was a regular visitor to the Garden. After being felled, much of the usable timber was sawn into planks and set aside to season at the Arboretum. In celebration of the 400^th anniversary of the Botanic Garden we have been asked to design and make a range of products from this wood, including boxes to house a special whisky produced by the Oxford Artisan Distillery for the 400^th anniversary.

Soundabout

Oxfordshire based charity Soundabout believes that everybody deserves to have a voice. They believe that people with severe and profound learning disabilities including autism should have a life full of expression, passion and enjoyment. Music is used to enable people with learning disabilities to express themselves, connect with others, and feel the warmth of music. One tool used by Soundabout is a ‘resonance board’ - simply a plywood surface held within a wooden frame. We were asked to respond to feedback they had received and produce a high quality product for them.