80 Scratch courses

Take your songwriting to the next level with this ten session mentoring journey from Josh Bowker, acclaimed folk songwriter and workshop leader.

We invite all jazz lovers, from all levels and abilities, to benefit from the highest jazz instruction in London. Learn how to swing under the guidance of excellent singing jazz instructors who have a broad experience and unparalleled expertise in adult singing education.

This workshop is open to beginners as well as intermediate-level students, so you can take your time and learn at your own pace. You'll be guided through all the steps of making jewellery from scratch, so you'll leave feeling confident in your skills whatever level you work at. The week is designed around you and you needs and aims. We'll have everything on hand that you need, including the silver clay and tools. We even provide the accommodation and endless tea and coffee to keep you refreshed throughout the retreat. The week will be an immersive experience that helps you feel like part of our family here at Gifted Crafts.

Guitar Building Course The Aim The aim of this electric guitar building course is teach you how to assemble a Stratocaster, Telecaster or Jazzmaster style bolt-on-neck design electric guitar to a very high standard as well as gain understanding and knowledge in not only the assembly but also a good understanding of its inner workings and overall function. What to Expect In this electric guitar building course you’ll focus on making the most successful electric guitar of all time: the bolt-on-neck design. In almost any music store, these guitars outnumber others five-to-one. The course will cover Body & Neck assembly, Pickup Installation & Installation of all Electronics and the Professional Setting up of an Electric Guitar The course will commence daily at 09:30 with lectures & discussions on topics relating to each part of the guitar construction and then followed by the practical application of these topics under supervision, finishing at 17:30. The course and workshop located in Cross in Hand, East Sussex, designed for a maximum of 4 people per course enabling a very close learning experience. All Lutherie tools needed to complete the course are supplied. NO Experience necessary! Upon Completion Upon completion of the build your own guitar course you will leave with a great Custom made Guitar! The end product will be a Custom Tele, Strat or Jazzmaster that You will have made and one that will give many standard models a run for their money in tone and feel. Personal attention The course does have a set agenda but we often meander around topics and are happy to do so, most of us have had many different guitars and they nearly always have some curious tales and they are always good to discuss. Break down of guitar course topics by day DAY 1 Body & Neck Wood choice and body design play a large part in the tone of an electric guitar. If you were to play several solid body guitars unamplified you’ll notice distinct differences between various wood types. A solid body that sounds good acoustically generally will sound good amplified. We’ll discuss the different woods used to make electric guitars and the effect of different body styles on tone and sustain. Just as wood affects the body, when making a neck you have to pay attention to wood choice in order to have a good sounding guitar. The hardware that goes into making a great guitar also plays a large role, not only the quality in the parts but also their fitting. You will be instructed on how best to fit all the component parts with skill and accuracy enabling you to create a great custom made guitar.. Topics covered: Body & Neck styles Wood choices Neck joints Adjustable Truss Rods Fitting neck to body Scale lengths Tremolo Bridge placement (Incl Claw & Springs) Fretboard radius Machine head installation Preparing the Nut Slot Making & Cutting a Bone Nut (Requires working with the belt sander) All the hardware fitted to the guitar will be quality Japanese Gotoh vintage parts, these are particularly well made; tuners hold tune well and the Gotoh bridge is of very good quality, all of this goes together to make a great custom built guitar. DAY 2 Electronics & Fret Dressing Once you’ve learnt why and how a great guitar goes together as well as practically applying the previous topics, you now learn to install the best pickups and wiring. For these custom built guitars we will be using Bare Knuckle Boot Camp pickups: very high quality pickups designed to suit our specifications of wood choice and body style. These pickups are hand wound in the UK and are widely regarded as the best pickups on the market today. Choose between Old Guard, True Grit or Brute Force. The key to having a great sounding electric is not just down to the Pickups but also the choice of components that go with it, often overlooked with most mass manufactured guitars, the guitar you make will have highest quality components and will subsequently sound great and work extremely well. Custom CTS Pots, Sprague Capacitor and a CRL (USA) switch as well as vintage cloth wiring all go together to make a very well appointed loaded scratchplate! Topics covered: Schematics Pickup installation Wiring volume & tone pots Wiring 5 way selector switch Wiring output jack Bridge and string grounding Fret Dressing both Theory & Practise DAY 3 Final Assembly The guitar will now be ready for final assembly. Today you will learn how to fully assemble and set up your electric guitar to a professional standard. The topics covered will be very useful for your regular maintenance of the guitar you have made as well as any others that you may have. Topics covered: Professional Setups Theory Fitting and filing the Bone Nut Pickguard placement Installing strap buttons Installing Decals (Personalised custom Decals) Final Setting and fitting the neck Stringing up String tree placement Bridge set up Action height adjustment and setting Pick up height Intonation Customising Your Guitar Build inclusive from £999 We are more than happy to work with you in order to get the custom build you want, so please contact us if you have a specific body colour scheme or neck choice, which Bare Knuckle pickups you want as well as hardware and we will try help achieve exactly that. If you’re unsure what works best, just get in touch and we will advise where we can. All custom options are subject to availability and it is always best to have a 1st & 2nd choice, there are some colours/parts etc that may incur additional cost. Tweed hard cases are available for an additional £75, £90 for the Jazzmaster. (Soft gig bag included) Some additional charges can apply for custom colours or specs or if you would like specific made to order Bare Knuckle Pickups

Are you ready to make your own silver clay ring? We'll give you the skills, tools and the space to manipulate, join and decorate in silver clay. Choose from 4 styles of rings to create your own unique design. In this workshop you will learn how to make a ring from scratch. You can develop your own design for a special occasion or just for fun! Have you got that special someone in your life or want to make a statement ring for yourself? Whoever the ring is for you'll make a ring that's completely unique. It's the perfect gift for any occasion—and an experience that will last long after the day.

Learn to join wood together without nails or screws

Are you ready to create enamel jewellery from scratch? You don't need any experience, and we'll guide you through everything step by step. We'll help you prepare the copper, layer powders, and glass embellishments, then fire and finish your piece to take home with you. You'll have a wide variety of jewellery types to choose from, which means endless possibilities for your own vibrant designs!

Are you ready to create enamel jewellery from scratch? You don't need any experience, and we'll guide you through everything step by step. We'll help you prepare the copper, layer powders, and glass embellishments, then fire and finish your piece to take home with you. You'll have a wide variety of jewellery types to choose from, which means endless possibilities for your own vibrant designs!

Autumn Wreath Making Workshop Oxfordshire. Join us in handcrafting a sustainable, luxurious autumnal wreath from scratch in glorious jewel colours. Decorate with seasonal foliage, dried flowers & fruit, seed heads, grasses and much more

Do you have a growing mountain of negatives and/or prints and wish to have them as digital files? This course will equip you with the skills to digitally archive your collection ready for reprinting and sharing online! It can be intimidating to approach alone, but this class will break the process down into an easy step-by-step tutorial – from scanning, to editing, and exporting. Having completed the course, participants will have a solid understanding of the required processes and can go on to take full control of their negatives and potential outputs. This workshop will take you through the scanning process – turning analogue negatives/prints into digital files – using two different scanners: an Epson flatbed and a Hasselblad virtual drum scanner. Providing an opportunity to look at how best to scan and restore prints as well as negatives, you will learn the benefits of both scanning systems and understand when and why to use them. Once images are scanned, you will then be shown how to take full advantage of all the information you have captured to really get the most out of the files. The course will guide you through the editing process using Adobe Photoshop to bring your photos up to the highest standard, utilizing colour correction, levels, adjustments as well as a walkthrough of the processes used to clean dust and scratches from your images. You will be shown how to export files for digital printing as well as for sharing online. All equipment and software will be provided for you, but in order to get the most out of the course you are encouraged to bring along a varied selection of negatives and/or prints to use during the course. It is estimated that you will have time to scan up to a dozen images during the day, so please do not bring along whole archives at this stage! Having completed the course you will be able to return to Stills to confidently use the scanning facilities here on a session or daily basis. However, much of the information and learning from these systems can be directly applied to your own home scanning setup if required.   Courses are subject to minimum enrolment. Please register early, within five days of the start date, to reduce the likelihood of course cancellation. Please read our cancellation policy before booking. Students, anyone over the age of 65, and those in receipt of any form of benefits can claim the concessionary price, offering a 10% discount on the full course price. Valid proof of eligibility must be produced on the first day of the course. Please use the code CONCESSION when prompted at checkout.