According to James Krenov, the plane is the cabinetmaker's violin. Easier to handle than a violin, it sure has its mysteries and magical properties. Used for making boards flat and square, adjusting joinery, and even finishing, planes offer an efficient and intimate connection to the wood. Examine what makes a plane work well, from construction to setup and sharpening to dealing with difficult grain. Leave with two planes made by yourself to fit your hands! All Levels welcome. $

Explore color theory through hands-on collage. Cover hue, value, saturation, and how color interacts in context. Inspired by Josef Albers’ work on color relativity, create visual studies that reveal how subtle shifts in color placement impact perception. Through guided exercises, deepen your understanding of color relationships and composition as you gain practical tools to support creative expression across art and design disciplines. All levels welcome.

Food connects us with events, cultures, friends, and family like nothing else. In this journaling class, document your food memories by way of prompts, flavors, and recipes. Some hands-on cooking will be incorporated for inspiration. Techniques such as memory mapping and collage may also be used. Return home with a food journaling routine.

For beginning to intermediate callers, enjoy a supportive environment designed to help you discover your strengths and explore new ideas. Topics include calling in time to the music (especially for beginners), teaching techniques, recognizing good choreography, planning a program, leading effective walk-throughs, improving performance presence and vocal skills, and working with musicians. Gain direct experience as you practice calling and teaching actual dances with live musicians.

Learn to play traditional and contemporary fiddle tunes for contra and square dances on any acoustic instrument. Have fun during slow-tune and faster jams, instructor presentations, individual and group lessons, discussions, small-ensemble band work, playing for dancers, and dancing. This class is for intermediate and advanced musicians who are already familiar with and play or accompany some contra or square tunes on their instruments. For planning purposes, please register by May 25.

Make a variety of items found in and around the home in this fun, informative class. Based on your skill level, create cooking utensils, candlesticks, coat racks, plant hangers, fireplace tools, and more. Bring your own design ideas or use those provided by the instructor. Basic forging skills will be covered as well as more advanced techniques, including mortise and tenon, riveting, and forge welding. Beginners will build a good foundation while more advanced students will expand their skills.

Expand your natural dye practice or dive right into the deep end! Explore screen printing techniques you can use at home without fancy equipment. Print with resists for the indigo vat, mordants for the dyepot, and with the dyes themselves. Along the way, gain a solid understanding of how dyes, mordants, and fibers interact to create vibrant natural colors. Forage for dyes on campus, bust myths, and fuse ancient traditions with new ideas. All levels welcome.

Dazzle your friends and family with a wide variety of gifts you make in this class. All projects are kitchen related and include both spindle and faceplate turning techniques. Start with the basics of tool selection, sharpening, and chucking techniques and go into sanding, finishing, and how to market your wares. Projects include honey dippers, rolling pins, saltshakers and pepper mills, bottle stoppers, bowls and plates along with a few surprises. All levels welcome. $

Explore the techniques and history of a 9,000-year-old form of finger-weaving while creating a twined bag based on Native Southeastern designs. Twining is a form of weaving in which you use your fingers to twist weft strands of fiber around pairs of hanging warps. Also, learn how to make simple weave changes to create additional patterns for your future twined projects. No experience required, but some manual dexterity is needed for this relaxing and therapeutic activity.

Create fun and functional pieces using a twining technique. Make shapes and forms to make purses, baskets for décor, and special places to tuck your treasures into. Acorns, pumpkins, strawberries, pickles, fairy houses, mushrooms...the ideas are endless. Bring beads, buttons, or small items–and your imagination–to incorporate into the weavings if desired. All levels welcome.

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. $