INSTRUCTORS
Prin van Gulden is a homesteader and craftswoman passionate about illuminating our connections to land and humanity through traditional skills. Humans have spent thousands of years developing ecological relationships, along with skills to create beauty and utility to meet the needs of cultures. She believes the relationships we maintain with the ecological world as we re-learn to utilize the gifts of nature are as essential as the hand’s-on skills we regain.
Prin aspires to help our culture maintain and evolve those relationships, and not to let those skills atrophy, by working in her community, with students, and by always continuing to hone her own skills and keep learning. Her practice is centered on the fiber arts, including basketry and textile weaving, spinning, felt making and natural dyeing.
She lives and homesteads in Craftsbury, Vermont with her family (Four people and one big dog in a yurt). There she grows a wide range of plants for crafting, from flax (for linen), cotton, and various dye plants to broom corn and basketry willows.
Prin teaches the Fiber Arts curriculum at Sterling College as well as classes and workshops in Vermont and New England.
Prin is teaching Wet Felted Bags.
Among other things, Penny Hewitt is a homeschooling mom, craftsperson and homesteader, who is inspired by the traditions of other cultures to revitalize and share skills useful to everyday life. She strives to grow, craft and participate in seasonal harvests for many of her needs and wants and is grateful to be part of a generous community of talented makers and growers with whom she trades skills, ideas and wares. She uses hand-harvested resources from the forest, letting the qualities of varying materials dictate their use. IG website
Penny is teaching Choose Your Own Adventure Black Ash Basket.
A habitual wanderer and weed eater, Lucian Avery lives with his family in Hardwick. He likes making things for everyday life, like baskets, bowls and chicken soup. Lucian spends his days blacksmithing, focusing on hand tools - mostly for the garden, woodshop and kitchen. IG
Lucian is teaching Shrink Pot Carving and Knife Hafting, and co-instigating the Morning Walks.
Luke Boushee has worked as a mentor at Earthwalk Vermont since 2014 where he teaches youth primitive and naturalist skills through out the year. He leads adult workshops in a variety of subjects including basswood rope making, flint and steel blacksmithing, hide tanning, etc. He lives in a homemade yurt in central Vermont and spends most of his time learning traditional crafts and harvesting and preparing wild foods. IG
Luke is teaching workshops in Burl Bowl carving and Rope Making
Photo Taken By Brad Salon at the ROOTS Rendezvous
Erok "e-rok" Gillard is a local artist, activist, poet, uncle and lover of the wild. He enjoys printmaking, paper cutting, shadow puppetry and sharing artwork, especially through the mail. Erok hopes to someday be able to whistle like a cricket. IG
Erok is teaching Block Printing for adults and Wild Adventures, Games and Singing for kids.
He will also be leading a block printing session Friday afternoon, putting Sloyd Skills Gathering logos on shirts and patches. We will have some shirts and cloth but bring your own if you can.
Sean Miller lives in the bustling metropolis of Montpelier but is lucky enough to have a sloyd barn in his backyard. Passionate about making, building, and tinkering, his hands are usually busy. Carving has been his daily meditation for several years, with spoons taking center stage. He is a lover of trees- both standing and fallen to the forest floor. IG
Sean is teaching The Wooden Spoon.
In addition to teaching crafts and earth skills, Ross Doree is a long time educator who loves the collaborative experiences that arise from being outside with kids. He also enjoys making up stories (some good, some not so good) based on folk traditions and the intersection of suburban and wilderness living. He is currently the Youth Programs Director at Crow's Path in Burlington, VT.
Ross will be leading Stories and Games for kids.
Nick Neddo has been teaching wilderness living skills, tracking, drawing and nature awareness professionally since 2000, although he considers himself a perpetual student. He makes his art supplies from materials he gathers from the landscape, which is the topic of his books: The Organic Artist, and The Organic Artist for Kids.
Nick is a sixth generation Vermonter who has been making art since he could first pick up a crayon. He grew up exploring the wetlands, forests and fields of his bioregion and developed a profound curiosity, respect and love for the community of life around him.
As a youth Nick identified primary focuses that would become life-long pursuits: study of the natural world, Stone Age technology (popularly known as primitive skills) and creating art. Trusting the inherent value of these skills, he continues to embrace their pursuit with a ravenous appetite fueled by a genuine love of the living world and the creative process. He has traveled the country extensively, visiting the last great wildernesses, seeking traditional skills and experiencing the landscape’s majesty, which are common themes in his work.
Nick enjoys clean air, water, food and dirty hands. IG
Nick is teaching From Stones, to Pigments, to Paints
Mary Watkevich has studied and taught land based traditional crafts for over a decade. She lives by the seasons in an old barn on a mountaintop in Vermont.
Mary is teaching Whisk Brooms.
Justin Sutera is a wilderness skills instructor currently living in Elmore, VT. He runs his own programs for children and adults under the name Back To The Earth LLC. Justin has been practicing and teaching wilderness skills for over 15 years, and his passions include basketry, bowmaking, hide tanning, and hunting. IG
Justin is teaching Bark Baskets for Kids and Brain Tanning Muskrat Hides
Jonathan Shapiro lives in Vermont and spends his days tracking, making traditional crafts, hunting, canoeing, picking up roadkill, and listening to birdsong. He believes that an accurate understanding of and deep connection to our wild surroundings are necessary for all people to thrive. He runs the Fox Paw School, where he teaches adults about wildlife tracking, bird language, weather, plants, awareness, and nature connection. IG
Jonathan is teaching Learning the Land, and co-instigating the Morning Walks.
Tessa Scheele grows native nut and fruit trees by trade and scampers around the forests all the rest of the while. She spends her time between Vermont (Abenaki territory) and Minnesota (Anishinaabe and Dakota territory), harvesting and processing wild foods, illustrating plants, practicing an array of crafts, chopping wood and dreaming of a liberated future for all. website
Tessa is teaching Ax Skills
Born in Minnesota, André Souligny moved to Vermont in 1996 and was introduced to the green woodworking tradition at Goddard College. For 25 years André and his partner Heather have lived in Central Vermont, raising their daughters Marguerite, Cedar, and Ruby. By their graces, André continues to revel in green wood spoon and utensil making, always learning new things, and instructing and blogging on the topic at www.spoonderlust.com.
André is teaching Beginning Green Wood Carving.
Quincy Boardman is a sixteen-year-old homeschool student who has spent most of her life loving the outdoors and being curious about traditional skills. She is a musician, craftsperson, and wanderer who enjoys all things creative and loves teaching her skills to others. She lives in Bakersfield, VT with her parents and brother and has taught skiing at Smuggler’s Notch for three winters, as well as working as a counselor at the Mary Elizabeth Preschool summer camp last year. Quincy spends a lot of her time playing with her enormous puppy, reading any and all fantasy books she can find, and trying to master her various musical instruments.
Quincy is leading Kid Games on Friday.
Dave Muska believes that developing a personal relationship with the natural world is a fundamental component of a healthy life and a global community. He is a naturalist and educator at North Branch Nature Center as well as the founder of Ondatra Adventures, a practice devoted to inspiring and developing personal relationships with the natural world through naturalist study and outdoors excursions. He teaches courses on many subjects including Fungal Ecology & Wild Mushroom Identification, Tracking & Awareness, and Wilderness Living Skills. IG
Dave is teaching Wild Mushrooms: Ecology, ID, and uses of Fungi