Design Techniques and Tools for Stack Lamination (2025)

Wendell Castle changed furniture history when he incorporated stack lamination techniques into his work. This allowed him to move away from “stick build” to more fluid pieces. This course will take you through the entire stack lamination process but will focus on the design and digital template creation front end. (The companion 5-day course will focus on the fabrication and carving processes.) Each student will create their own design. The process steps we will go through in class is as follows:

1. Sketch
2. Carve in foam or clay
3. 3D scan
4. Clean up model and manipulate
5. Digitally slice the model and to automatically create templates

Students will need to bring their computers for steps 4 and 5. Instructor Taeyoul (Terry) Ryu was a longtime employee of Wendell’s and is a master of the stack lamination technique. There will also be at least one full-time assistant instructor. Class size is limited to 10 students.

Read about Castle's pioneering techniques in this Fine Woodworking article, originally published in 1976.

Class fee:$385

Material fee: $50

Taeyoul Ryu bio