Inside Passage
Hands-on learning in Roberts Creek
by Christine Wood
Coast Reporter

with permission of Coast Reporter

There’s something special about Inside Passage, the new fine woodworking school in Roberts Creek — just ask the students.
“It’s amazing to work with teacher Rob [Van Norman] and study the ways of James Krenov. It’s like a whole new world, a new way of working with wood. Something happens here. It’s like your chance to make poetry with wood,” student Federico Mendez said. Mendez and his family sold nearly everything they owned in Venezuela to be able to come to the Roberts Creek school and learn principles of woodworking handed down from well-known Swedish woodworker Krenov.

 

Krenov has written four books on the fine art of woodworking and teaches a philosophy that has become a prerequisite for advanced cabinetry throughout the world. Van Norman studied with Krenov while at the College of the Redwoods in California. That fostered his vision to bring Krenov’s philosophy to a school in Canada. That vision became a reality in May of 2005 and the school, that can accommodate 10 students, had interest from around the world.

At the time Mendez was a wood-turner/artist working in Venezuela. He was drawn to Krenov’s books even though he had trouble understanding the language. “I’d have to check in the dictionary what the word meant but I didn’t know how to pronounce it. And it’s hard to learn from a book. You really do better with hands-on learning,” Mendez said. He would buy woodworking magazines once or twice a year while in Venezuela and one such magazine held an ad for Inside Passage. He applied to the school in Roberts Creek and after the long process of securing visas and passing tests to enter the country, Mendez and his family arrived on the Sunshine Coast with enough money to live for two years while Mendez completes his studies. “For us this has been an adventure and we are very happy to be here. What I’ve already learned at this school is extraordinary. Rob is an extraordinary teacher,” Mendez said.                  

The 10 students now enrolled in the school’s nine-month craftsman program have already learned how to make their own tools, basic woodworking, machinery and joinery skills. “Making the tools was just amazing to me. That you can make a tool that is just as good if not better than the top ones on the market is really fabulous,” Mendez said. Students are now working on their first project to be displayed at a show at the school on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in the gallery. That same day the school will have an open house for interested community members to come and see what Inside Passage is all about. The open house will run from 1 to 4 p.m. at the school behind the old Gumboot Café. Van Norman hopes many in the community will visit his unique school and see the variety of courses available for every level of woodworker.  

There are summer courses and weekend courses in addition to the craftsman program, including a course that would have woodworkers walk away with a hand-made chair to be proud of.
“Brian Boggs of Kentucky, an internationally renowned chair maker, is going to teach that week-long course,” said Van Norman. Inside Passage has many friends in high places and even renowned Krenov keeps in regular contact with Van Norman, helping guide the programs. “James [Krenov] is in constant consultation with the school. I speak to him once a week and he has a very strong impact on what we do here,” Van Norman said. And at the end of the year, graduates of the craftsman program will show their pieces in the North West Furniture Gallery in Seattle, the most prestigious gallery on the West Coast, according to Van Norman. “We are very, very fortunate to be able to show there,” he added. 

Students now enrolled at Inside Passage hope to open galleries and specialty furniture stores of their own some day, and Mendez wants to bring the techniques he’s learned back to Venezuela for others to benefit from. “I think I would like to write a book in Spanish. There are no teachers or schools there for this kind of thing, and it would be hard to explain. When you can’t see it, touch it or feel it, it’s difficult to explain what it’s all about. It would be a challenge. My dream would be to open a school like this in my country,” he said.

To find out more about Inside Passage, go to their website at www.inside
passage.ca or phone Van Norman at 604-885-9676.