I WAS hopeless at woodwork at school. All fingers and thumbs, and clumsy joints, and bits of wood that wouldn’t do what I wanted them to. Which is a shame, because I have always loved the texture of wood. I have always wanted to plane it, work it, make things out of it.

I long ago reconciled myself to the fact that it wasn’t to be. But then I stumbled on Furniture For Life.

This is a York business out on Millfield Lane run by husband-and-wife team Kevin and Pennie Lordan. It specialises in making bespoke furniture, and wonderful shepherd’s huts: hand-crafted rooms on wheels that can be parked in the garden and are a great way to add extra space to your home.

But there is a third strand to what Furniture For Life does.

At the start of this year, Kevin and Pennie added a mezzanine floor above their workshop on the London Ebor Business Park. Tim Haworth, the firm’s skilled 21-year-old apprentice, knocked up a set of work benches. And now Furniture For Life has its own teaching and learning centre.

Here, it runs a programme of courses in working with wood. Kevin, himself a master craftsman and former teacher at Archbishop Holgate’s School, teaches woodwork and furniture making. Master woodcarver Iain Broadbent teaches woodcarving. And from next month Pennie will run a series of art classes.

Kevin and Pennie are passionate about craftsmanship. We live in an increasingly hi-tech world, Pennie points out. “So it’s nice for people to be able to get in touch with natural things.” And it is great to be able to pass on skills that too many people these days simply don’t have, Kevin says.

It was the woodcarving course that caught my eye. The latest course is half way through, but Kevin and Pennie had no objection to me turning up on a Tuesday evening to get a taste for what it involves.

I met Iain Broadbent in the car park as I arrived – and there I learned lesson number one: first pick your leaf.

Fortunately, there is a beautiful laurel bush in one corner of the car park. There, I selected a perfect green leaf, with a hint of a curl to the tip and strong vein structure. This was to be my model.

Inside, up in the learning centre with Iain’s other students, I soon learned that as well as being a master woodcarver – to be expected in a man who was apprenticed to the great Dick Reid and is a graduate of the Royal College of Art – Iain is also a master teacher. He has learned the difficult art of giving beginners just enough information and guidance, then leaving them to get on with things.

First he chose a piece of wood: a block of pale, fine-grained lime. Fine-grained woods are best for carving because they are the easiest to work, he explained.

Next, draw the outline of your leaf on the wood. I made a poor first attempt, then Iain kindly pointed out that the easiest way might simply be to put the leaf on the block, then draw around it.

He then clamped my wood block in a vice, issued the required warning about sharp tools, and selected a wicked-looking chisel with a V-shaped blade. He called it a v-tool, and it was used to carve out the outline of my leaf.

He showed me how it was done, using a mallet to tap the chisel and run blade along the upper pencil outline on my wood.

“Now it’s your turn,” he said, handing chisel and mallet to me.

Under his watchful eye, I carved out the outline of the lower half of my leaf, creating a satisfying curl of wood that dropped to the floor beneath the bench. I repeated the action several times, until I was left with a piece of wood with a deeply carved leaf outline.

Next step – carve away the outer part of the block until the leaf is standing up in relief, Iain said.

He showed me how, using a gouge, a chisel-shaped tool with a slightly curved blade. With deft strokes of the mallet, he began to carve away the unwanted wood. It helped to work with the grain where possible, he said.

“That way you’re pushing the fibres of wood together. If you work against the grain, you’re pushing the fibres away from each other, which can cause ripping and tearing.”

Iain left me to carve away for a while. Then, once my leaf shape was standing proud of its wood block to a height of about half a centimetre, he showed me how to shape the texture. We carved out a centre vein, and shaped the edges of the leaf inwards to meet it. Make the tip dip a bit, to match the original leaf, Iain said. I did so.

I found the process of wood-carving relaxing and absorbing. After a couple of hours work on that bench, I had produced a carving that was recognisably a leaf.

Other students on the course were equally impressed with Iain’s teaching skills.

Alice Walker, a 32-year-old council worker, was carving a rabbit. She particularly liked the way Iain let you get straight on with working the wood, she said.

“That’s much better than just being told how to do it.”

Her friend Sinead Corkery, a 35-year-old speech therapist, agreed. “I love the way he teaches,” she said. “He’s very relaxed, and gives you just the right amount of support.”

He must be good, if he was able to teach me. My wooden leaf now has pride of place at home. It fills me with a little glow of achievement every time I look at it.

Fact file

• Four new six-week courses – two in wood carving, and one each in woodwork and art – begin at Furniture For Life in June. Woodcarving classes will be on Monday and Tuesday evenings, from June 7, and cost £125 for a six week course.

• Woodwork classes will run on Wednesday evenings from June 9, and cost £110 for a six week course. Art classes run on Thursday evenings and cost £90 for a six week course.

• For more information, visit furnitureforlife.co.uk, or call 01904 798964.