Society of American Period Furniture Makers

2008 Mid-Year Conference
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Registration is now open for the 2008 Mid-Year Conference. Register online and pay with Paypal or print and mail your registration form to pay by check. Registration is open until July 23, 2008.

Presenters Finalized for Mid-Year Conference at Rockingham Community College in Wentworth, NC

Al Breed, Steve Latta and Alf Sharp will be presenting at this year's mid-year conference.

Al Breed has been making furniture by hand full time since 1976, and spends most of his time filling commissions copying 17th through 19th century furniture for collectors and museums. He has lectured and demonstrated cabinetmaking techniques in museums throughout the country and will be recreating some pieces for Brock Jobe's upcoming Southeastern Massachusetts Furniture exhibit opening in spring of 2009 at Winterthur. In 2004, Al opened The Breed School in Rollinsford, NH, where he teaches week-long classes in carving and early joinery. Al will present Working Efficiently with Hand Tools: Performing Various Joinery, Fitting and Shaping Operations Quickly. Al will cover dovetailing, planing, carving and fitting involved in furniture construction-a sampling of different things.


Steve Latta has been an educator/cabinetmaker for over twenty-five years focusing primarily on furniture of the Federal style. For the past ten years he has taught furniture making full-time at Thaddeus Stevens College in Lancaster, PA. He has lectured on the topic of inlay at various institutions including Colonial Williamsburg, the Milwaukee Art Museum and Winterthur Museum and Gardens. He is a past member of the Executive Board of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers and currently serves as the Society’s Conference Coordinator. His work has been featured in CWB, Woodwork, American Period Furniture, The Catalogue of Antiques and Fine Art and Fine Woodworking magazine where he currently serves as a contributing editor. Additionally, he has twice been a guest of Roy Underhill on PBS’ The Woodwright Shop demonstrating traditional inlay techniques. Besides teaching, Latta does private commissions and lives with his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children, Fletcher, Sarah and Grace in rural Pennsylvania. Steve will present Tips and Tricks in which he will cover the ins and outs of some techniques that are not so often addressed. Steve will address topics such as glass doors, efficient approaches to joinery, fielded panels and some traditional and not so traditional approaches to inlay and surface ornamentation.

Alf Sharp has lived in Woodbury, TN, for thirty-five years. He dropped out of law school in favor of studying manual arts, and began the long process of self-education in fine furniture-making. At one point his business had grown to a small factory with twenty-five employees, but that was not his dream. Since 1981 he has been working in a small studio next to his house, custom crafting the finest possible furniture, mostly in American and European 18th-century traditional styles. His work is in numerous museums and historic houses. Alf is the recipient of the 2008 Cartouche award from The Society of American Period Furniture Makers. He is a member of the executive committee of the Furniture Society. Recent work can be seen in the February 2008 edition of Woodwork and on his website. Alf will present Finish Veneering Curved Surfaces, Whether Obtained thru Sawing, Bent-lamination, or Bricklaying. Alf will discuss glues- from the old trusty hide glue to the latest epoxies. Methods of clamping from hot sand bags to vacuum bags will be demonstrated, along with all the little tricks that make each one work well. Detailing, such as cross-banding and line inlay will be touched on as well.

Click on the links below to read detailed conference information.