The Woodworking Apprenticeship of Benjamin Jack Prowell. bprowell@prowellwoodworks.com

1990-- Accessorized with an Illinois nail apron and hammer belonging to previous generations.		2005 Finally a shop apron that fits him.

1993-- Building something.  Who knows what.  But he has his own toolbox and his own nail apron and his own hammer.  Building something.

1993-- Watching and learning. He would spend endless hours doing just this--watching it done once, and then seldom forgetting.

Left--Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.  Right--Too Hot to Handle

1995-- A blue ribbon winner at the Sonoma County Fair for his redwood coffee table.

2002-- The generational continuum of one apprentice to another (Ben Prowell and cousin Parker Prowell).

Parker Prowell, finishing his bench.

Ben and Parker in November 2007

May 2005-- Considering the appropriate joinery for his new Patio & Lawn Tables.

Exhibiting what Ben has designed and built over the years would require a site of his own.  But here we have a couple of variations on a new look for patio tables and accompanying bench.

2005---At work on a gate for an historical Georgetown, DC property.

A typical gate subjected to quality control test #32.

With his older brother Sam Prowell, on the right, for a family gathering at the Beach Chalet in San Francisco.  2004

March 2008, geared up with his headphones for music and ear protection; his high tech battery operated dust filter; and the special woodworker's gloves.

The Jaguar's caliper-like hands at work

A marketer's dream:  Five Prowells in the shop at once. Ben giving a few of his cousins a little time in the shop Left to right: Jackson, Ben, Parker, Asa, and Soren.

 

April 2009

January 2010.  Shown in the final assembly stages of a typical double-tier post cap

 

NORTH BENNETT STREET
SCHOOL of FURNITURE MAKING

North Bennett Street in Boston's North End, as it appears today and where beginning in Febuary 2010, Ben begins the two year program in Furniture making. We will chronicle his progress on this page and hopefully post a few photos of his various required projects.

May 2010 On the rooftop in Boston's North End.  An area used, among other things, to expose clamped glue-ups to the sun and air.

May 2010 The first visit. The second visit lasted a week during late October of the same year and ended with the arrival of the first nor'easterly of the season,

May 2010 Getting a tour of the third floor-- for 2nd-year students.

Required Projects

Toolbox

Fall  2010

September 2010  One of the three required projects is the tool chest.  Here we see an in-progress pin.  One of 32 cut by hand that will make up the joinery for the carcass panels.  A daunting task, it might seem, but Ben finds himself rising earlier each day, anxious to arrive at the school and lose himself in the process.

A better sense of the scope of this project.  Ben mentions an aching back and sore wrists resulting from the 30 hours spent cutting the above dovetails.  And yet, as with everything, once a project has begin, his determination and focus increased with each passing day until there is completion.

They look tight and clean

The finished Toolbox.

The back as solid cherry raised panels, profiled by hand planes.

A lifetime investment in protecting Ben's collection of chisels.

 

 

Windsor Chair

Jan/Feb 2011

The turnings for the Windsor chair.  Ten straight hours at the lathe.

The scooped out Windsor Chair seat

The Windsor Chair turnings joined to the seat.

The final product.  A replicated Windsor Chair that began with the 'green' log arriving in the back lot of the school on a day when the temperature hovered around 10 degrees.  Splitting the log as it was done centuries before, using a series of wedges and harnesses to create the eventual slabs that could by the end of that day be brought inside and milled down to workable stock.

 

Side Table

Dec/Jan 2010-2011

An in-progress of the Demi-Lune side table. In the upstairs finishing room, the table receives its first initial application.

A closer look at the lacewood apron and beading.

Miscellaneous pieces

Custom Wood Chess pieces turned on the lathe.

1992

 

2002

 

1993

Contact Ben Prowell:bprowell@prowellwoodworks.com

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