Where does color come from? Delve into the history, chemistry, and hands-on practice of making pigments and paint. Concoct your own palette of handmade watercolors inspired by artists’ recipes from the 14th to the 17th-century, including earth pigments, lake pigments from the dye garden, and charcoal combined with natural medium. Return home with a paint box of twelve watercolors, a sketchbook of recipes and swatches, and the knowledge to continue expanding your palette.

Gain an introduction to the historic art of bobbin lace and learn how to “draw” with fiber and yarn. Explore the basics of cross and twist, half stitch and whole stitch, and the thousands of combinations and possibilities. Start with lace tape and torchon ground, then expand to shaped lace. Create tone and value with tiny knots and stitches and make delicate designs that can become intricate drawings, pendants, jewelry, ornaments, and beautiful works of art. All levels welcome.

Create a bracelet a day using different techniques, tools, and equipment. Explore the use of the rolling mill, hydraulic press, punches, and hammers to embellish the surfaces of your bracelets. Using a torch and patinas, learn to add color to your designs. Leave the week with a treasure chest of bracelets. All levels welcome.

Explore tools, techniques, and your creative spirit as you gain an introduction to the art of drawing in various media. Enhance your powers of observation so you can truly “see” your subjects, before you even put pen or pencil to paper. Master traditional skills like line quality, shape, and composition and apply them in a more expressive and individual direction. All levels welcome.

Fuse a wide range of glass colors to copper by heating with a torch or firing in an electric kiln. Add bright, opaque and brilliant, transparent enamels to a variety of copper forms using several application methods. Also, explore techniques including sifting, stenciling, wet packing, sgraffito, painted acrylic enamel, and basse-taille. All levels welcome.

Learn to create at least five unique styles of hand brooms, from the traditional turkey wing whisk to colorful, plant-dyed altar brooms, and other functional forms rooted in folk traditions. With an emphasis on technique, form, and creative expression, each broom will carry the imprint of your hands and the story of its making. Through a lens of deep reverence for craft and ancestral memory, explore the process of binding, weaving, and shaping brooms that are as beautiful as they are useful.

Fungi are fascinating! Come grow, forage, identify, cook, eat, craft, preserve, and learn about the many facets of fungi. Dig in with a mix of hunting, lectures, sampling, and hands-on making. Learn how we can interact with, benefit from, and work with mushrooms to help regenerate our soil, our health, and our planet. Examples include hands-on, low-tech cultivation to regularly supply fresh mushrooms and decorating clothing in artistic mushroom-themed ways.

Explore the human form as a vessel for storytelling and personal expression. Use handbuilding techniques, with an emphasis on hollow-building with coils, to create head-and-shoulders sculptures that embody unique narratives. Focus on overcoming artistic barriers and navigating through creative sticking points, empowering you to deepen your practice. These finished pieces will be roughly life-size or slightly smaller (but not bigger!). Process only, no firing; expect to carry home greenware.

Every project requires tools. Tools are even needed to make tools! Cover the basics of tool making and heat treating while crafting hammers, tongs, chisels, and more. Discuss how these pieces can be altered and tweaked to enhance your individual experience. Feel the satisfaction and reward of using your own forged tools and customize your work to fit your needs. All levels welcome. $

Coopering is the ancient art of making wooden vessels such as barrels, butter churns, buckets, canteens, pitchers, and piggins using only wood for staves and white oak bands with no nails or glue. Learn how to use the traditional tools and techniques the instructors’ family has used for six generations. Also, discuss how to select proper woods, such as cedar for staves and white oak for bands, to complete your vessel. All levels welcome.

Turn bits of fabric, bags of yarn, and other items you have been saving for a rainy day into unique works of art! With the guidance of an environmental artist as your instructor, use coiling, wrapping, random weave, sewing, and binding techniques to make animals and birds out of recycled textiles and scavenged materials. Develop your own approach to make the animals you see in the world around you. Start with creatures that walk or crawl and end the week with ones that fly. All levels welcome.