Limited Space In Each Workshop - First Come, First Served
Pre-registration required
We are very family friendly and all ages are encouraged to come. Kid classes are geared to 6-12 year olds (or anyone who is a child at heart). The rest of the classes are for adults and interested teens.
After registering please e-mail your workshop choices to 68pennyg@gmail.com
Check the schedule to make sure your workshops do not overlap.
Most of the materials for these workshops are gathered from the land by the instructors. This takes time and skill and thought to do responsibly. Since each project takes a different amount of effort to find and prepare materials, each one has a different materials fee, payable directly to the instructor at the start of each workshop. The fee is listed below the workshop description.
These workshops are not happening this year. Please see our COVID UPDATE for more information.
Black Ash Berry Basket
With Penny
Saturday morning and afternoon
Weave a square to round, 6"x6" basket with an optional leather strap and in the process learn one of the oldest crafts in human history. For thousands of years baskets served as indispensable objects in every culture. Carry on the tradition and take home a beautiful, durable and useful basket crafted from local and responsibly harvested, hand pounded, black ash splints.
Materials fee: $25
Green Wood Spoon Carving
With Fern and Matt
Saturday morning and afternoon
Learn to carve a green wood spoon in the Scandinavian style! In this comprehensive, two-part workshop, you'll learn essential techniques for crafting a functional and beautiful spoon from a green wood log. We'll create space for you to explore your own design ideas with safe and effective techniques, and help troubleshoot the questions and challenges that can arise in working with green wood. Participants will leave with 1 or more spoons ready for finishing and all the essential skills necessary to go out and carve more!
In Part 1, we'll work through choosing your wood, splitting blanks, working with the grain, properties of green wood, safe ax carving technique, and basic spoon design.
In Part 2, we'll dive deeper into spoon design and practice safe carving techniques with a sloyd knife and hook knife. As we chip away together, we'll troubleshoot finicky design details and discuss techniques for finishing your spoon at home.
Materials Fee: $10
Burl Bowl Carving
With Luke
Saturday afternoon
Carve a one of a kind bowl from a soft wood branch harvested spruce burl using various gouges and hook knives.
Materials Fee: $10
Cedar Bark Hat
With Nolwenn
Saturday morning and afternoon
Learn to weave your own hat from the inner bark of eastern white cedar. Note that this class takes the two blocks.
Materials Fee: $35
Shrink Pots
With Lucian
Saturday morning
This is a very old method of making containers. The center is carved out of a green piece of wood, making a tube. Then a groove is made around the inside, near the bottom and a dry bottom board is carved to fit loosely in the groove. When the green wood dries and shrinks you have a container that can be used for storing dry goods. We will carve pots out of some local wood. All materials and tools will be provided but if you have a carving knife or spoon knife you like, bring them.
Material fee $10
Whisk Brooms
With Mary
Sunday Morning
Throughout history, folks of different cultures have crafted brooms from natural materials. In this whisk broom workshop, we’ll dip into the basics of broom making, drawing on traditional Shaker techniques. We’ll cover knots, materials and tools specific to the craft, while tying your own pair of whisks - a plaited handle whisk broom, and the curvaceous turkey wing.
Materials Fee: $40
Knife Handles
With Lucian
Sunday morning
In this workshop we will burn wood handles onto blades and shape them to fit your hand. A choice of local hardwoods will be available. You can bring your own blade (must have a rat-tail tang) or there will be blades available to buy. All tools will be provided but if you have a whittling knife or rasp you like, bring it.
Material Fee: $10
A variety of hand forged blades will be available for $30 each. Some will be for general use and some will have a Scandinavian grind for whittling.
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Wet Felted Pouches
With Prin
Sunday morning
Wet Felting is craft with wild and varied cultural roots from traditions around the world. It is simple to learn but the possibilities of what you can do with it are endless. It is method employed in everything from making slippers and hats to the felt homes of Central Asia.
We’ll make our pouches using a resist method of felting that is applicable to all kinds of projects (hats, bags, etc.). And we’ll talk about other felting methods and traditions of the craft work while we work.
Materials Fee: $10
Buckskin Pouch
with Luke
Sunday morning
Make a pouch from a brain tanned deerskin. Learn various sewing techniques with this wonderful natural material.
Materials Fee: $20
Birch Bark Jewelry
with Prin
Saturday morning
In this workshop we'll make beads and bangles with materials and techniques that are more commonly associated with basketry. We'll use some of our favorite northern basketry species including white birch and black ash to weave a bracelet. We'll also make simple beads with birch bark that can be incorporated into bracelets, earrings, or necklaces, depending on time and student preferences.
Making jewelry is a great way to start learning basketry techniques. It's also a great way to expand on what you can do with the techniques you have if you are already a basket maker. For all of us it'll be a fun and productive way to spend a morning, with some unique jewelry to bring home at the end of it.
Materials Fee: $10
Coptic Book Binding
with Nancy
Saturday afternoon
In Coptic Book Binding, participants will learn the whole process- from start to finish- to create a unique handmade book. We will select beautiful handmade papers for the hardbound covers, and sew the exposed-spine binding using a traditional paired-needle, Coptic technique. This form of Coptic Binding creates a lovely chain stitch at every sewing station and results in a structurally strong book with high quality mixed-media pages for writing, drawing, doodling, or whatever your heart desires! This promises to be a full-immersion experience in book-binding; participants will leave with a handmade blank book and a wealth of knowledge.
Materials Fee $18
Wild Adventures, Games and Singing
with Erok
Saturday morning
Kid games
with Yard
Saturday afternoon
Woodland Toys
with Yard
Sunday morning
No materials fees.
Morning Walks
With Jonathan
Saturday and Sunday Mornings
7AM - meet at the pizza oven
Join me for morning walks through the mixed North Woods forest habitat surrounding the Lazy Mill Hill Farm. You will learn about the trees, plants, habitat, and animal sign we encounter, as well as identifying birds by song and sight. All participants welcome -- kids under 10 with a parent/guardian, please.