Make a Sushi Platter

Over a full day you’ll make a solid wood sushi platter and a pair of chopsticks from scratch — choosing your timber from walnut, beech, ash, or oak, marking and cutting the platter shape yourself, and working through the whole process with hand tools. No flatpack, no pre-shaped blanks, no screws. A jigsaw to rough out the form, then hand planes, rasps, spokeshaves, and sandpaper to bring it to a surface worth oiling. 

This is a course designed for people who’ve never picked up a hand plane — or who have, but want a relaxed day to practice. The making is the point. You’ll work at your own pace, make your own decisions about shape and edge treatment, and leave with something you made yourself and can use at home. 

Across the day you’ll learn to: 

• Choose and read timber: understanding how walnut, beech, ash, and oak differ in grain, density, and working character — and what that means for the tools you’ll use across the day 

• Mark out a platter shape: working from a blank, laying out your chosen profile freehand or from template — the design is yours 

• Cut and refine a profile with a jigsaw and spokeshave: sawing to the marked line, then sanding and spokeshaving the edges to a clean, consistent curve 

• Taper chopsticks with a hand plane: learning to read a taper, set a plane, and work a fine section from a square blank — one of the most satisfying introductions to hand tool work 

• Apply edge treatments with hand tools: choosing a chamfer, roundover, or combination for the platter edges and working it in with planes, rasps, chisels, and spokeshaves 

• Add personal details: using the tools to bring your own character to the piece — surface texture, edge details, or decorative touches on the chopsticks or platter 

• Drill a soy sauce bowl recess (optional): marking and boring a recess into the platter surface at the drill press for a small soy sauce bowl 

• Finish with food-safe oil: two coats across both the platter and the chopsticks — the grain of your chosen timber left open and the surface ready for the table 

Brandon Harrison is a fine furniture designer-maker with an international formation — trained at Sturt Craft Centre in Australia and Yacademy in Italy — and a practice built around heirloom-quality work where the construction is part of the design. Steam bending, wedged tenons, and exposed joinery run through his own exhibited work, recognised at Craft + Design Canberra, Vivid Furniture Design Melbourne, and Wood Review’s Student Maker of the Year. He brings the same depth of thinking to the workshop. 

All timber, tools, and finishing materials are included. Come in clothes you can work in and closed-toe shoes — no open-toed footwear in the workshop. 

Please note we cannot accommodate pets or children who are not registered for the course.