I think being a full-time luthier would be a great job if you could manage it. But I think it'd be worth trying to build some backup into your studies, too. Getting some qualifications in electrical engineering, for example, would open career doors in many places and industries, but also be not totally useless to a luthier, and very handy to an amp builder and pedal designer/modder. Won't help you much with the wood carving, so I guess the furniture maker course is the way forward there; and I suppose there's always wooden stuff to carve that isn't a guitar ....
I just thought of this, too: Potentially, if one were a luthier based in Europe, living in some part of Europe that was cheaper than the UK might be a cunning option. You ought to still be able to import and export without violent pain most anywhere in the EU, but if you just need a workshop and a website, then why base them somewhere as expensive as (southern, at least) England)? Spain or Portugal might work as well, and bring your overheads down? Sunnier, too! :) Obviously, I know zip about the details of this sort of thing, but it's just a thought.
(I have a strange pipedream that, if my wife managed to score a job back in South America, that I'd eventually figure out a way to organize an electric guitar making business. While I haven't ever learned the manual skills, I can organize people pretty well. There's plenty of skilled woodworkers and electricians around, perhaps perhaps I could bring a few people with the know-how together to make some decent guitars that would be a step up from the overpriced and cruddy imports I see there too often. There are, at least, worse dreams! :))
