We’re inviting you to a six-day Traditional French scribing workshop in Estonia in April 2015. This is a valuable chance to complement your carpentry skills in timber framing both in theory and practice within a mixed group of professional Estonian log builders and international carpenters.

The course will be tutored by French carpenter Mourad Manesse, who has been working as a carpenter for nine years now. He has made most of his jobs with hand hewn wood and no power tools at all. He has also done restoration works on different traditional houses in France. Five years ago he began offering courses in scribing and cutting joints, and he has coached two long-term building projects for beginning carpenters and unemployed people.

The participants will learn how to hew the beams, scribe on hand hewn beams, cut the joints with saw and chisels, make a mortise and tenon, and plumb bobbing in a traditional French way. During the course a pine frame will be built similar to the one here using only hand tools.

The course will be hosted by Vanaajamaja, an Estonian non-profit organization dedicated to establishing training programs, disseminating information, and serving as a center of Estonian traditional building and log house renovation for the professional and general public alike. Vanaajamaja has been hosting workshops and organizing training courses for Estonian carpenters since 1998.

Over the last few years, several international projects have taken place including the Jaruska covered bridge building in summer 2012 and a log-building workshop for international group in spring 2014 and 2015.

The course will be held in the Mooste Training Center, a complex of restored stone and timber buildings surrounding the 16th-century Mooste Manor.

Dates: April 13-17, 2015

Cost: 485 euros ($600).  This price includes tuition, lunches and dinners. Transport and accommodation are on participants budget. Space is limited to 8 participants; please register early.

All meals will be provided, with an emphasis on local, home-cooked Estonian food. We suggest for accommodations the Mooste guesthouse, which is near by restored outhouse of historic manor complex and we are ready to assist in transportation questions.

SIGN UP ON THE COURSE

More information and questions: info@vanaajamaja.ee