The Facilities

The woodshop is located in old cooperage at 930 Mason Avenue in Paristown, Louisville Kentucky. The shop is fully outfitted with workbenches, hand tools, shave horses, table saws, jointers, planers, band saws, chisels, sanders, drill presses, a dust collection system, clamps, a turning room with several lathes, finishing facilities and more.

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Meet the Instructors

TED HARLAN

Ted Harlan is a graduate of the Berea College and a product of the rich Berea, KY crafts heritage. While in Berea, he had the opportunity to study with many of this country’s finest and best known woodcrafters. He served as an assistant to master wood turner Rude Osolnik for two years and ran the Westervelt endowed woodcraft community program for three years. Since 1987, he has operated a full time woodworking studio, where he has created work ranging from store design and fixturing to architectural woodworking and one of a kind commissioned pieces of furniture, as well as individual instruction. His work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution Craft show, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Orange Co. Museum of Art in California. Internationally, he has shown his work in Paris France, Munich Germany, and has had a show of his work tour Great Britain.

Amanda wilder

Amanda is a Louisville native with strong ties to the community. She has always enjoyed learning new things and being a maker whether it be woodworking, sewing, cooking, gardening, DIY projects, or insect collecting. In 2015, she left her career in Medical Practice Management to become a full-time woodworker. Since then, she has been working at the school assisting Ted and in 2017, she began teaching classes in woodturning. She has not had work exhibited in Philadelphia, D.C, California, France or Germany, but she has been to bars in all of those places.

Mike Payne

Mike Payne is a lifelong resident of Louisville, KY. Having started playing guitar at the age of 14 he has spent the last 36 years learning everything he could about the instrument and the music he loves. Beginning in 2008 by building cigar box guitars he has developed his craft by building acoustic and electric guitars, dulcimers, ukuleles and violins.

Mike has several instruments he cherishes including a 1983 Yairi Canyon Creek, and a 1984 Fender Stratocaster he received for Christmas as a teenager. He loves the art of building acoustic instruments, especially guitars and violins because of the complexity and the anticipation of hearing a new instrument brought to life throughout the building process.

Mike holds both Mechanical and Architectural Engineering and Design Degrees from Sullivan University, where he taught various classes for 11 years, and a BS in Political Science from the University of Louisville.

Michael has been married to his best friend Amy for over 20 years. They have 2 children Katelyn and Christian, and a granddaughter Iyla. They currently reside in the same neighborhood where Mike grew up in Valley Station, KY.

interim Instructors & Assistants

Katharine King

Katharine is a life-long lover of all kinds of making and building, from sewing and construction to stained glass, welding and electronics. She discovered the joy of woodworking in 2020 and has not looked back.
She has been assisting with classes at the school since November 2021 and left her 15 year career in manufacturing to do full-time woodworking in June 2022. Her work has been exhibited on Instagram and Facebook and in her sisters’, mothers, and grandmothers living rooms.
Dan Shaw
Frank & Beans

These expert felinewoodworkers joined us in December of 2021. They are masters of drawer fitting, flatness checking of table tops, and blending in with many in-house wood species. They thoroughly enjoy every student and love being in the shop.