Skip to main content Skip to footer
Blog

Boats and Battle Axes

Posted on November 9, 2011
by North House Folk School

We hosted a pair of wooden boat building classes over the month of October and into November. We have a chance to meet all sorts of fascinating students during the course of the year, but some of the longer build your own boat classes afford us the pleasure of spending a couple of weeks with students. These students meld into the North House community and get a chance to be a part of the weekly rhythms.

Barry Rackner was with us building a beautiful susan skiff with instructor John Beltman. They worked diligently as a pair and produced a lovely boat.

Barry making doing some fine tuning.

Susan Skiff primed and waiting for a final color.

We also had the opportunity to spend time with Bob and Wendy Jickling who, along with the help of a pram building fundamentals class, built a gorgeous Norse pram with instructor Mark Hansen.

Christening

She floats!

I had the good fortune of watching these projects as they progressed from rough sawn planking to sea worthy vessels. Needless to say, they float.

Lucy, Sarah, and I are closing in on the end of our tenure as North House interns. We are diligently crafting away, putting last minute touches on our inpidual piles of half finished projects. Sadly, we will have to say goodbye (see you later is probably more accurate) to many of our new friends, but we will also have to part ways with the beautiful shop full of tools that has also become the dearest of friends. It will be difficult on many fronts.

For those of you reading that feel inclined we are hosting an intern open house on Thursday November 17th at 7pm. We will be sharing our stories and displaying many of the projects that we have been working on during our stay. Please come.