Registration/Payment: If you'd like to sign up for a class please print this registration form, complete it and mail with your class deposit, or use the shopping cart buttons if you plan to pay with credit card or PayPal. If paying online, please note that on the form when you send it. Note, the button is only for 50% of the class. If you wish to pay all of the class in one payment, please change your quantity to "2" during checkout.

Cancellation and Refund Policy: If the student cancels we will refund the full deposit if the cancellation is received in writing four weeks prior to the class date. Later cancellations and "no shows" will not receive a refund. Full refunds will be given if we need to cancel a class.

Travel Information: Airport and hotel suggestions are available here. You might also wish to check our local weather, kindly provided by weather.com.

Private Classes: David offers private classes which provide one-on-one instruction. The advantage of the private class is that it is completely tailored to suit your individual skill level, interests, and needs. In addition, there is more flexibility in scheduling dates for one-on-one class sessions which can range from one day to five days. You can pick any subject or subjects to focus on, such as bandsawn veneers, bentwood lamination, wood turning, dovetails, double-bevel marquetry, sharpening hand tools, wood carving, gold leafing, patinas on metal, working with the vacuum press, working with commercial veneers, fixing mistakes, design elements, etc. The class takes place in David’s workshop/studio in which he taped the television show "Woodworks", and also includes a tour of his home in which he has many of the pieces he made on "Woodworks".

Please email us at victoria@djmarks.com to ask about private classes.

Group Classes: Each class will have 3 - 20 students, or more depending on the class format and use of power tools, and will be held in David's shop/studio in Santa Rosa, California. Demonstration only classes can have more students.

Store/Association Classes: David travels quite a bit teaching classes at Woodcraft stores, associations and other teaching centers. Details on his schedule for these is listed below as well.

David's Photo Gallery

Class Size: 15 - 20 Students $375.00 - All materials included.

David is always experimenting and trying to innovate new techniques to apply to his various turnings and sculptures. Students of this new gilding and chemical patination class will learn David's latest techniques that he developed to create the gilding and chemical patination on this vessel that won "Best Turning" at the Artistry in Wood show held at the Sonoma County Museum last summer.

The processes that you will learn can be applied to any surface that will accept paint. These include wood, metal, paper, ceramics, glass, even plastics. So no matter if you are a jeweler, ceramicist, sculptor, blacksmith, woodworker or woodturner, you will take home some very creative and innovative techniques to enhance your work and increase your marketability.

This is a hands-on class where all students will receive six sample boards (4 inch by 10 inch) that they will gild with genuine 22 karat gold leaf as well as copper, silver, and dutch metal leaf. On the first day students will work with the traditional oil size method of gilding. We will also explore creative gilding techniques, such as the Japanese Notan method, of balancing positive and negative spaces. On the second day, I'll introduce students to the process of chemical patination. I will demonstrate various cold patina processes that students will learn working safely with mild acids. These techniques are very comprehensive and not just limited to woodworkers.

Class Size: 3 - 10 Students $750.00 - All materials included.

David will teach a three-day class on making a dovetailed box using a bandsaw. David will introduce students to a system he uses for efficiently sawing dovetails using the bandsaw for speed and accuracy. Students will learn how to lay out a pattern and a method for designing their own “unique dovetail signature.” This system is extremely versatile allowing for dovetails with “thin pins” as well as sawing dovetails in thick stock. This is the same technique that David has used in his own studio since 1984 when he bandsawed the 4" thick dovetails for his workbench. Each student will receive prepared stock for a small box, and after cutting the dovetails, David will set them up with a “guide block” to finish them off with sharp chisels. Students will cut a concealed dado in the bottom for a panel to be inserted just before glue-up. Students will make a lid either with a rabbet so it can drop in or with hinges.

Class Size: 3 - 10 Students $750.00 - All materials included.

This class is for beginning to intermediate students, and in this hands-on class each student can expect to take home a completed sample of a veneered project. The class will focus on learning how to saw your own veneers on the bandsaw, edge join the veneers, choose the appropriate glue, select the substrate, and glue up the project in the vacuum press. Time permitting, each student will get to try their hand at either double-bevel marquetry or inlay work.

Class Size: 3 - 10 Students $775.00 - All materials included.

This class is for beginning to intermediate woodworkers that want to learn the process of bentwood lamination as they design and make their own project. In this hands-on three-day group class each student will design his or her own curve, as well as design and build their own bending form. Students will learn how to resaw laminates on the bandsaw and each student will make their own bentwood lamination project that they can take home. In addition, David will demonstrate how to do compound bentwood laminations as well as continuous strip laminations.

Class Size: 10 Students $875.00 - All materials included.

Stuart has developed a five day class that teaches woodturners of all skill levels the most effective way to cut wood on a lathe using a woodturning style that is hundreds of years old that encompasses six fundamental cuts. Based on the European style of push cut it has been developed to work with less tools and simple grinds.

Absolutely everyone who takes the class learns to cut the wood with zero torn grain and very little physical effort. Almost any cut can be performed with 2lbs of pressure or less, even roughing down a large rough-cut bowl can be done with very little physical effort.

Every cut is broken down into very small parts, so that anyone can learn and perfect these cuts. Each of the six cuts is practiced in a variety of both spindle and bowl turning shapes. Each student learns to free hand grind, which is more accurate than jig grinding and is easy to learn, when shown how.

The class also covers scraping techniques, including negative rake scraping, and when and why you would use these techniques.

The class also clarifies a lot of woodturning myths, such as: "Rub the bevel" This is a very misleading statement, yet it is one of the most common used. In fact, very few cuts can actually work if you rub the bevel, it must be floated. This and many other very important points are clarified.

The first two days are learning and practicing with many pieces of wood in a variety of applications. Days three to five are making days. There is still a lot of practice each day on spare wood, before making the finished pieces. The students make a variety of bowl types, square bowls, boxes, and spindle projects.

Stewart Batty Bio

Class Size: 3 - 10 Students $895.00 - All materials included.

Challenge your powers of imagination in this five-day, hands-on sculpture class. David will teach you the process he uses to create his award winning sculptures. The class will be taught how to design, cut, and construct a skeleton made of ½ inch birch plywood, and then layer it with pieces of 1/8 inch bending ply. Once the students understand the concept, they can proceed to construct a sculpture of their own design or build their own version of David’s design.

David refers to his wall sculptures as hollow forms because they are torsion boxes, except they can have compound curves and tapers, like an airplane wing, instead of being rectangular and flat, like an assembly table.

After the “form” is completed, students will move into the exciting world of surface decoration. David will teach students how to create texture with gesso and other materials. There will be a transformation as students apply thin layers of metal (gilding with sheets of copper and brass leaf) and then create fantastic patinas with layers of various mild acids. These art pieces will then be sealed with thin layers of shellac and wax. Project parameters will be approximately two square feet.

Class Size: 3 - 10 Students $750.00 - All materials included.

In this hands-on class David will teach the challenging and artistic world of inlay. He will explore several different methods of creating one-of-a-kind inlays that will enhance your work and take it to the next level. David will show you how to do free hand inlay, router template inlay, double bevel marquetry (which is a veneering technique as opposed to an inlay technique), and colored epoxy inlay. He will show students how to do repeatable inlays by teaching you how to design and make your own templates. In addition, as seen demonstrated by David at the 2007 AWFS Delta Booth “Combining Metal & Epoxy for Inlay,” David will show students a unique technique using various non ferrous metals, copper, brass, and aluminum, combined with various dyes mixed in epoxy.

Class Size: 12 Students $650.00 - All materials and tools included.

This two-day class will cover all aspects of the inlay process, from composition and design, material selection and cutting, through routing, leveling, and engraving details. Students will be provided with a complete set of tools which they will be able to take home with them at the end of the course, and all materials used in the inlay will be provided. Students will, during the length of the course, complete their own inlay utilizing all the different processes they will be likely to deal with in the majority of any future inlay piece. A list of shell and tool suppliers will be available, and various examples of Larry's own inlays will be on hand.

You can read Larry's bio here and see more examples of Larry's work on his website robinsoninlays.com.

Class Size: 3 - 10 Students $875.00 - All materials included.

Get ready to have fun in this five-day hands-on turning class that will incorporate gilding and chemical patination and vessel turning. Using bowl turning gouges, hollowing tools, and scrapers, students will learn how to turn bowls and hollow vessels. David will guide students through the process of selecting stock and how to prepare it for turning. Students will also learn sharpening techniques, sanding techniques, ways to mount wood onto the lathe using faceplates and four jaw chucks, and safety. David will teach students his signature process technique of gilding and chemical patination to embellish their turned pieces. This class promises to be action packed and students will take home a variety of art pieces that they will treasure for years to come.