Designer Derek Hurd received a Quick Funds Professional Development grant to attend a class at the North Bennett Street School in Boston, Massachusetts, where he learned to make a Windsor chair using hand tools and green wood. His final report states:

The intensive work with hand tools showed me that the best answer for getting a job done—from a simple bevel to jointing and shaping—doesn’t always have to use a tool that gets plugged in. The hardest and most complex form in furniture is a chair; a combination of form, function and comfort. Breaking down the final complex form into a series of (many many) steps really opened my eyes to achieving different forms, shapes, and complex structures that seemed impossible before the class. I am honored to have received this Quick Funds grant from the ICA. Send anyone my way who wants to know more about the class, the chair that I made, or my time at North Bennett Street School.