Alison Winfield-Chislett:
Chief Muckety Muck & Tutor
Alison Winfield-Chislett has a number of eclectic skills covering a wide spectrum of materials and processes.
She spent her childhood renovating her dolls house and playing with Plasticene. She went on to study 3D design in Wood, Metal, Plastics and Ceramics for her B.A. and Ceramics and Glass at the R.C.A. while running her own prop making company for the fast paced world of special effects for TV and films.
In 1986 Alison moved to New York and worked as a staff designer for Tiffany and Co. While in the USA, she taught carpentry classes to women.
After returning to London, U.K., Alison became Senior Designer for Asprey during it’s relaunch and later worked to develop her own products for the gift market. She has worked as consultant designer to several independent museums and as Art Director/Costume Designer for a full length film shot in the monsoon in India.
In 2009, Alison started to teach Basic DIY skills, renting community halls to teach a successful ‘Tools for the terrified’ one-day workshop. In 2011, she co-authored ‘The Girl’s guide to DIY’, which has now been updated in 2019 and is available as ‘Beginner’s Guide to DIY‘ from Amazon.
Besides creating beautiful objects at the centre, designing and leading workshops, Alison is the author of ‘The Natural History of Umbracula‘ – a quirky take on discarded umbrellas. She collects ephemera and vitally trivial knowledge about many things. Her patent anniversary blog can be found at Patent Du Jour. There is no rational explanation for her creation of The Good Lice Centre.
For a glimpse into Alison’s special relationship with a family of Carrion Crows- check out her @crowsinapark on Instagram
Click here to read about the daily developments at The Goodlife Centre.
She is also currently chronicling the life of the nation’s first media handyman, WP Matthew.
Meet the rest of our talented team of skilled tutors and behind-the-scenes heroes that help us to make The Goodlife Centre a wonderful and creative space:
Ruth Thomson: Tutor – Furniture Making
Ruth Thomson is an experienced carpenter and enthusiastic teacher. She has headed carpentry departments teaching NVQ levels 1 and 2. Ruth enjoys teaching our introduction to furniture making as well as bespoke classes for children.She headed the build for our new workshop and wrote an impressive and accurate shopping list for 2 kilometres of wall studding and a ton of plasterboard.
When not teaching, Ruth explores the countryside on her motorbike and plays guitar and piano. Not at the same time.
Emily Harris: Workshop Assistant and elf.
Emily is enthusiastic in all things goodlife, a wonderful member of staff, she is an office whizz. Emily loves to learn and improve her making skills, woodmaking to crafts.
Ana Woods: Tutor -Furniture Restoration, Workshop Manager
Ana’s passion for furniture restoration has been nurtured from working closely with furniture restorer Steve English. ‘I love a good wood reveal – the satisfaction that comes from giving a piece of furniture a new lease of life is addictive’.
Ana also helps to make the The Goodlife Centre work. She combines her many talents with running a happy family and still has time to craft with knitting and stitching.
Andy Nicholl: Tutor – Basic Woodwork
Andy Nicholl is a master of many skills. He has to be- he has run his own handyman service in South London for many years, as well as making bespoke furniture for private clients.
When he is not helping people fix things in their homes and volunteering to help local communities, Andy finds time to make furniture using traditional hand tools and methods.
Len Conway: Tutor Woodworking
Len Conway has over forty years of experience in further education. He has taught carpentry, Joinery and multi skills to a high level. His interests include music, architecture, art, mountain walking and boating.
Krasi Nikolova: Upholstery
Ian McQueen: Tutor – Traditional & Pleated Lampshades
Ian is a City and Guilds trained craftsman who has taught for many years. He makes beautiful traditionally built fine lampshades for interior designers and high end shops. Some are sophisticated some are dramatic statements bejewelled with vintage adornments. All are hand stitched with precision so that they retain their shape and structure to give years of pleasure. Ian gained the record for the furthest learners will travel to our workshops when two eager makers travelled from South Carolina to pick up some skills.
John Page : Tutor – Basket making
John was so impressed by a Contemporary International Basketry exhibition he decided to learn the craft. He now teaches rush and willow basket making with us. John also repairs harps.
Geoff Davison: Tutor – Woodworking
Geoff is a skilled woodworker with many years experience teaching at a Steiner school in South London. He runs a bespoke shelving company ‘Brockley Shelves’. He describes himself thus: Dough kneader, plant waterer, 3 chord strummer, bicycle tyre inspector, woodworker and teacher. Find him on instagram @brockley_shelves
Jon Hall: Tutor – Woodcarving
Jon is a City and Guild trained wood carver. He works as a professional high end maker, restorer and gilder and shares his expertise in a patient and playful manner. Jon may share access to his humourous and original Youtube channel.
Deborah Andrews: Tutor -Sewing
Deborah graduated from Camberwell College of Arts with a BA Hons in Illustration. Over the years she has developed her own practice of drawing and illustration to combine machine embroidery with digital imagery and a bit of old school pen and paper for good measure. Her clients include The Guardian Newspapers, The Barbican, Latitude Festival, Danny Boyle’s Shuffle Festival, Vital Arts and The Big Draw.
She has been teaching drawing, fashion & clothes making, and creative textiles for over 20 years. www.deborahandrews.co.uk
Anna Crutchley: Tutor – Passementerie; Linen Tassels, Upholstery Trims
Anna Crutchley trained in woven textiles and is a designer-maker of bespoke furnishing trimmings.
She creates these for restoration pieces, interior decorators upholsterers, heritage organisations and private clients. She is teacher with 30 years experience and her inspirational books on passementerie have become key texts. Check out her website www.annacrutchley.co.uk
Jane Rogers: Gardening
Jane Rogers is a busy professional gardener and has led many workshops including long and short courses at Kew Gardens, London. She is @Janerogersplot on instagram.
Netty Erw: Furniture hand Caning & Upholstery
Netty Erw is a professional restorer who comes from a long line of upholsterers.
Carolina Harvey: Upholstery
Lucy Thomas: Upholstery
‘I am a designer maker living and working in East Sussex. I produce modern upholstered footstools. Useful objects, made well. My practice is informed by the idea that ‘If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it’.
Joe: Tutor – Bookbinding
Joe Dixon is a London based bookbinding tutor, book restorer and producer of bespoke hand bound products.
With over 10 years experience teaching bookbinding and associated arts he offers a full range of courses and workshops aimed at both beginners and advanced students. Joe also restores leather and cloth bindings as well as offering a bespoke bookbinding service.
Moira Tighe: Tutor – DIY in a Day Drills, Plumbing & Painting.
Moira has built her own house and is an enthusiastic DIYer and an experienced teacher of both children and adults.
Besides having a great grasp on DIY, she has worked as freelance prop maker- creating puppets and carnival structures. Her love of materials and specialised techniques are shared in our workshops with patience, humour and know how.
Jane Kimber: Tutor -Upholstery, Soft furnishings
Jane worked in film production for many years, before deciding to pursue something more practical and creative- and so she chose upholstery. She has won awards from the Worshipful Company of Upholders. Jane now runs an upholstery business in Stoke Newington. She loves to share her passion and skills. ‘There’s a real joy in revitalising old, abandoned, unloved chairs and sofas. There has definitely been a shift in recent years away from cheap, badly made furniture (that all too soon end up as land fill) towards an appreciation of the time and skills involved in the craft of upholstery. I’m excited to be introducing some of those skills and techniques to the students. Find her on instagram @seatupholstery/
Richard Warmisham : Tutor – Woodworking
Richard trained as a fine furniture maker and has won awards with his hand made designs. He founded a bespoke furniture company ‘Made by 68°. You can enjoy watching his projects emerge on his Instagram account. Find him on instagram @madeby68ltd
Jack Theobald : Tutor – Woodworking
Marcin Waszak
Marcin Waszak (MA Product and Furniture design) is a designer, maker and teacher at the accredited Rycotewood Furniture Centre in Oxford. He is a passionate and patient tutor.
Auram Desforges: Tutor – Woodworking
Auram spent his childhood in Canada building frame houses with his father. He works as a wood engineer and is fascinated by traditional techniques. He has developed our ‘Make a chair’ and ‘kumiko’ woodwork courses. Find him on instagram @auram.makes
Michelle Purse: Website & Marketing
While everyone else is sharpening tools and fine tuning the practical workshops, Michelle is in the virtual trenches making sure the website she built is up to date, reminders, thanks yous and press releases she has written go out on time and that the all important back-end (sniggers) of the business is organised so that the workshops aren’t burdened with paperwork and paper trails. As well as spending as many days as possible on the ski slopes, she runs her own marketing business. Discover her website www.myoutsourcedmarketingteam.com