TELEPHONE:
ADDRESS:
Av. de Palencia, 34 – 39300 Campuzano (Torrelavega)
ACTIVITY
Juan Vicente is a cabinetmaker who, having inherited his craft, sees it as a duty to keep his legacy of knowledge alive. In El Sitio del Carpintero, his carpentry, carving and restoration firm in Torrelavega, he gives introductory courses in traditional carpentry and joinery, as… well as carving and restoration courses.
His woodshop designs, lays out and builds artisan staircases, pergolas, gates, porticos and doorways, as well as doing carving and woodwork restorations. Although his team now use IT in drawing up designs, they prefer to make initial sketches with pencil and paper. In the workshop, full of manual tools and somewhat short of space, rather than heavy machines they use versatile portable power tools.
TRAINING
At the age of 16 Juan Vicente started out as an apprentice in the Muriedas furniture factory, where he trained for four years and spent five years as a journeyman. He resumed his studies with vocational training in technical drawing for industry and construction as… well as in woodwork and furniture. He worked as a journeyman in several carpentry shops and then set up as a self-employed craftsman in 1994. Since then he has carried on learning.
TEACHING
His career took a new turn in 1995 when he began working as a carpentry instructor in the Craft Schools, Trades Centres and Job-Training Workshops (ETCOT) of the municipalities of Miengo and Polanco, and in the Training Workshops of the municipality of Piélagos (Cantabria) and… the regional Metalworkers’ Foundation.
He now heads a school of carving, joinery and carpentry and furniture restoration, which has had over a hundred pupils since it started up in January 2013. Here Juan Vicente passes on the knowledge that he has acquired over all these years in the trade.
SELECTED WORK
His works notably includes helical staircases, porticos, gateways, timber roofs, porches, pergolas, enclosures, etc.
