Belt Making: Forge and Stitch
Taught with Elizabeth Belz

Sure, there are many ways to keep your pants on, but a handmade belt and hand-forged buckle is arguably the coolest way. Learn blacksmithing and leatherwork in this unique course offering. In the first half of the course, students will be in the forge learning basic techniques while making at least two different styles of belt buckles. Students will start off with Nordic Viking and Celtic-style belt buckles and move on to more modern designs, learning about various finishes along the way. During the second half of class, students will jump into the world of leatherworking, making belts from vegetable-tanned leather. Students will learn about cutting, thinning, riveting, and finishing leather with various techniques and tools. Some tooling and stamping of the leather will be optional. To practice and learn these leather techniques, students will also make a leather key chain. After this, you’ll never get caught with your pants down.

Old World Games
taught with Jake Fee

An engaging class for woodcarving, leatherworking, and board game enthusiasts, Old World Games delves into the construction, embellishment, and strategy of multiple classic games. Fidchell is a Celtic game famous in legend and lore as the game played by Irish heroes. Hnefatafl, sometimes called Viking Chess, was said to have been played by the gods themselves. We will also learn to play and potentially make various fireside strategy games: Three Man’s Morris, Nine Man’s Morris, Fox and Geese, Bear Games, and Alquerque. This class is a beginner-level woodworking and leatherworking class focused on knife cuts and embellishment techniques in both wood and leather.

Throughout the course, students will create leather game boards, wooden game boards, wooden pieces, and stone pieces. Students may embellish their work as they see fit with decorative carving and colorful paint. This is a fun and quirky path into woodworking, carving, and leatherwork.

Carved and Kolrosed cutting board
taught with Liesl Chatman

Learn to make a Scandinavian-style hardwood cutting board and “tattoo” it through the traditional craft of kolrosing. Inspired by an antique kolrosed cutting board Liesl found in Norway, your board will have one side for cutting and the other side decorated so that you can hang it proudly in your kitchen! Kolrosing uses a very small knife to cut lines into wood that have pigment (like ground cinnamon) and oil rubbed into them for a scrimshaw-like effect. Instructor Maeve Gathje will lead the class in designing and cutting shapes into the board itself. This can be a simple handle, or the shape of an animal. Maeve will cover design elements to consider when creating a custom cutting board. Then kolrosing artist Liesl Chatman will cover kolrosing knife techniques used in cutting letters, borders, patterns, and illustration.

Cases Covers and Sheaths

In some Arthurian legends, it is said that Excalibur’s sheath could heal any wound dealt by Excalibur. While we cannot claim the sheaths students make in this class will repair any cut your tools makes, they will absolutely protect those sharp edges from becoming dull. This three-day class will focus on leather and woodworking, in the construction of custom sheaths for your tools. We will begin class by covering basic leather and woodworking techniques in the construction of a simple knife sheath, and move on from there to design custom covers for all your tools. Students should bring three or more tools they want to protect, and should expect to walk away with at least three sheaths and the know-how to design a custom sheath or case from scratch. 

Viking Chess: Crafting the king’s board
taught with Jake FEE

The game of Hnefatafl, also known as Viking Chess, was said to have been played by the Norse gods themselves! In this course, students will carve their own game pieces from wood and decorate their own game board with milkpaint. This class is a beginner-level woodworking introduction focused on knife cuts and embellishment techniques. We will practice these skills by creating a smaller medieval board game--the game of Three Man's Morris--before moving on to creating the grand game of Hnefatafl. Students may embellish their work as they see fit with decorative carving and colorful paint!

milkpaint; exploring color, texture, and pattern

Explore color, pattern, and texture using milk paint, a durable natural finish with a long history. Students will make their own sample tiles of stock colors and custom mixes to use for future reference. We will explore various ways to apply the paint and seal it. This is a great class for DIYers, anyone interested in learning more about natural home finishes, and woodcarvers or furniture makers interested in adding color to their handmade items. While several brands of milk paint are available on the market, this class will use the brand Old Fashioned Milk Paint. We will cover basic techniques for mixing, applying, and finishing milk paint to achieve a desired look and feel, as well as color theory for layering milk paint pigments to create unique color combinations. Students will leave with a set of sample tiles useful for reference on future projects.