Courses

Fully experience the craft of making a traditional birch bark basket for the gathering and storage of berries or anything you please. This course includes time focused both on material preparation and on basket making. Day one includes an extended session in the woods to harvest the birch bark in…

Scandinavians & Russians commonly kept small, flat birch bark boxes in their pockets for the then-popular taking of snuff. Large finger and lap jointed boxes often held coffee, tea, salt, even butter. Today they continue to hold keepsakes, buttons, spare change, jewelry, dried fruits, oatmeal or a child's found treasures.…

The market basket will take you many places: from the market to the beach, from picnics to grocery stores. This course is an introduction to the awesome qualities of the ash tree, which we will use both for weaving the basket and for making the handles. We will prepare the…

The black ash pack basket: it's beautiful, highly functional and can be made using simple materials. The first part of the class will be spent preparing black ash splint for your basket by pounding a locally harvested log. Next, you'll weave the basket and finish it with a rim, handle,…

Traditional northern craft meets Don Draper? Fedoras are definitely back in fashion, DIY is all the rage, and in this fun course you can combine them both. Put a northern twist on a southern hat weaving tradition and make a woven cattail hat to protect yourself from the sun during…

The hex weave basket is commonly called a "cheese basket" because it can be used for processing cheese. However, this holey design is perfect for holding produce or other displayed storage needs. This project will be made from Black Ash splints, which the students will help cut and prepare. The…

This course will focus on crafting a birch bark sheath for a favorite short-bladed knife. A good example would be a carving knife, which students should bring to class or purchase in the North House School store. We will begin by crafting an inner sheath of wood for the knife…

The knutkorg, or knot basket, is a classic style of Scandinavian basket. Constructed from willow and split cedar, the basket is an interlocking framework of bent and notched pieces. The pieces fit together like an ingenious puzzle, making the knutkorg a craft marvel. Over three days, students will learn to…

The North Woods is full of beautiful, colorful material suitable for basketry; you just have to go out there and get it! Willow shoots, birch bark, tamarack bark, and willow bark are just a few of the available options. In this class we will head out to a nearby location…

An abundance of easily accessed and harvested native materials very suitable for basketry grow in our northern region. In this class we will make a frame with striking red osier dogwood and then weave a basket with a handle using a mixture of cattail and iris leaves, basswood fiber, willow…

Work with locally-harvested sweet grass, cattails, and sedges during this two-day class while learning the art of coiling a sweetgrass basket. We'll incorporate an elegant agate as a base for the basket and make a small birch bark ornament wrapped in sweetgrass. Hands-on instruction provides students with an introduction to…

Simple and elegant, a handmade willow platter is a great way to serve fruits, breads and other foods. Made with locally harvested willow, these trays are held together entirely by tension and include additional woven details as a decorative element. In this one-day course, students will learn several basic weaving…

Learn the basics of traditional Roma frame basketry. The travelling people of Europe would harvest willow, hazelnut and hawthorne whips from the hedgerows along the road and weave these ribbed baskets. There are endless opportunities to play with shape and size and students will get all the basic techniques needed…