Shaun Devine (102, 103)
Shaun, a graduate of NIU, taught in CPS for eight years, competed on the U.S Kendo team, was a photographer for 2 years, and spent five years as a restaurant manager. She saved her money so she could quit her job and complete a one year unpaid apprenticeship at The Chicago Bauhaus Academy. Upon the death of the founder, she cashed in her retirement, emptied her savings account and opened The Chicago School of Woodworking with her business partner Mark Hamester. She has overseen the construction of thousands of tables as the instructor of the 102 and 103 classes for 15 years.
Guest Instructors
Larry Anderson (Band Saw Box)
While in High School, I bought my first table saw and began making small jewelry boxes. In 1987 we went to the Madison Art Fair in Wisconsin where I saw a woodworker making wooden boxes. At this point, I knew I had the skills to design and build my own wooden boxes. I bought some exotic woods and tried making small boxes. They did not turn out very well, so I burned them in our fireplace. In spite of this, I went ahead and bought walnut and maple and tried again. This time, I was satisfied with the results of my design and creativity. I started doing mostly elliptical shaped bottoms with sculptured tops. My first art fair was in Chicago near Water Tower Place. A Scandinavian Airlines pilot stopped and examined one of my boxes and purchased it. I was delighted. Since then, I have made and sold over 2000 boxes. I mainly sell them at high-end craft stores throughout the United States. I have been published in a book called “The Art of The Band Saw” written by Mark Duginske.
Nick Artemakis (Cabinet)
Nick Artemakis has been building custom speakers for over 40 years. A woodworker and hopeless audio electronics tinkerer, he established Electric Woods in 1986 in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago.
A somewhat “eclectic” woodshop, Electric Woods has offered a wide range of quality custom cabinetry, furniture, finishing, and furniture repair, but always specializing in custom speakers and entertainment centers.
Cassandra Cantu
Kathy Cunningham (Scroll Saw)
Paul Davis (101)
Paul has made furniture all of his life, in the sort of obsession that ends up spilling furniture out of your own house into the houses of friends, children, and random strangers. The furniture making was always an avocation, while food and shelter came from various vocations like software engineer and financial officer. What the vocations had in common was a perfect lack of tangible outcome. In the evenings and on weekends, the antidote was making real furniture that would be used in real homes. Over many years of making things out of wood, Paul learned the craft by trial and error—the school of fixing one’s own mistakes. Now, teaching others, he takes delight in the pleasure students feel when they pick up a piece of wood, form a joint with saw and chisel, and discover that it fits.
Andy Kuby (Turning)
Andy Kuby is an architect and real estate consultant who has always been involved in carpentry, woodworking, woodturning and construction. In the 1980’s he contributed to the renaissance of the New York real estate market as residential architect and personally renovating a 100 year old brownstone for his own use. Four gut renovations in two states followed, all with his family in residence. Beds, tables and cabinets were all fabricated as required. Mr. Kuby is a member of the American Association of Woodturners, the Chicago Woodturners, an occasional demonstrator, part time instructor and mentor.
He is still working on his 10,000 hours but making progress.
Graham McLachlan (101, Turning)
Graham McLachlan is a former student at CSW, having started classes there in 2012. He was taken in immediately by woodworking and enrolled in virtually every class. After years of honing skills on independent projects, Graham began to teach Woodworking 101 and Woodturning.
Al Miotke (Segmented Turning)
Working with wood has been a lifelong pursuit which started at a very young age when my Dad, who owned a custom cabinet business, handed me a broom and said “sweep”! After this beginning, I learned to appreciate the beauty and flexibility of wood as a design medium while I learned the fundamentals of cabinet construction and safely using woodworking tools. This interest in woodworking continued into adulthood with a focus on furniture design as a part time passion while I paid the bills as an engineering manager. After over 30 years of making furniture and cabinets as a past-time, I discovered woodturning in 2006 and l have never looked back. Combining my interest in precision woodworking and a newly found passion for woodturning created a perfect storm that resulted in my fascination with segmented design. I am currently the president of an international association called the Segmented Woodturners where we strive to advance the art and craft of segmenting.
Clint Stevens (Turning)
Clint Stevens is a woodturner who has had a passion for wood since before graduating Utah State University. After a career in engineering he opened a woodturning studio and gallery in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood where he tackles architectural and artistic woodturning projects. Over the years Clint Stevens has benefited from regular studies with woodturners from around the world. He has years of experience teaching woodturners in safe low stress environments where his students learn the joy of the lathe. Clint is an active member of the American Association of Woodturners and the Chicago Woodturners.
Rick Vanderveer (101)
Lee Weitzman (Design)
Lee Weitzman has been designing and making furniture for over 35 years. He has also been teaching furniture design and making at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for the past 20 years. He is an accomplished woodworker and uses this knowledge as he creates new designs. His private design build practice, Lee Weitzman furniture, is located in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago. To learn more about Lee and to see his work, visit www.leeweitzmanfurniture.com
Gibbs (Supervisor, Inspector, Greeter)
Gibbs is settling into his role as Shop Dog. Shaun adopted him when he was 1.5 years old and he has been “working” at the shop for about 2 years.