Courses

This course offers a full immersion into the signature tree of the boreal forest: the white birch. The objects that can be made using all parts of this tree are many. Using a slojd knife, students will carve the freshly harvested green wood into butter spreaders, cheese boards, coats hooks…

Cranks wind, gears turn, dragons chomp and birds fly. Welcome to the whimsical world of automata: simple wooden machines that delight and amaze. Join Cecilia Schiller for a three-day exploration of the principles of making wooden machines and the simple mechanisms that make things move. Beginning with the design process,…

Make the wood chips fly! This course is for students ready to stand at the chopping block and learn to use classic wooden bowl-carving hand tools – the adze, axe, gouge and push knife. During this class, topics including selection of wood stock, elements of bowl design, strategies for hand-hewing,…

How about carving a wooden figure for the upcoming holiday season--either as a gift for someone special, or for yourself (since you are special too, right?). Harley, who says 'if you can peel a potato, you can carve a figure', will lead new as well as experienced carvers through the…

The spoon is in the eye of the beholder. A crooked branch can become a perfect ladle; a slight bend makes a lovely eating spoon. Enjoy three days of handwork in this greenwood carving class focused on ladles and spoons. Working with birch, you’ll use simple hand tools and carving…

For woodworking projects from chair making to spoon carving and beyond, a small sharp drawknife is an ideal tool. Used in conjunction with a vise or shaving horse, this tool can rapidly remove large amounts of material or delicately create smooth finished surfaces on both flat planes and compound curves.…

Personalize any place by creating a hand-carved wooden sign. Woodcarver Jock Holmen will teach the entire sign-making process, from proper design to layout, letter and incise carving, painting and finishing options while students work on a personal project. Whether it will hang at the cabin, the garden, a business or…

Ready to cut to the core of the matter?  No matter what the project is, traditional woodworking requires a solid command of two fundamental tools: the axe and the knife. This will be mostly a process/skill building workshop for folks who have some knife and axe carving experience but are…

The kuksa is an old-style wooden cup made to travel far and wide and be at the ready, whether the beverage of choice is water from a Boundary Waters lake, coffee of any quality, or even a splash of something stronger (so we've been told). Over three days, students will…

Does the thought of Wood Week have you all rearing to go? Why not kick things off by carving and painting a Dala horse? Harley Refsal will lead students through the stable, and introduce traditional Swedish Versions, as well as some of their Nordic and New World Dalapalooza cousins. This…

This course provides beginning carvers with the opportunity to carve several figures in the Scandinavian flat-plane style. Beginning with tool sharpening, the course provides hands-on carving experience as you complete a figure in step-by-step fashion. You will then paint the figures and apply a final oil finish. After this initial…

Got milk (paint)? Add color and creativity to any project without using toxic and petroleum-derived products (no cow required). Learn how to prepare, mix your own colors and apply milk paint. Milk paint is one of the most ancient forms of paint known. Milk protein (also known as casein) and…

Meet Jock Holmen, the “Norwegian Termite:” when it comes to carving on timbers, you can’t “stump” him. From blueberries to little people, lettering to logos, Jock can help you chisel your ideas into white pine as you design and carve decorative embellishments for your home. Choose from a variety of…

The 1904 excavation in Norway of the Oseberg Viking ship revealed a vast array of woodcarvings, unlike anything seen previously. Dragon-like head posts, elaborately carved sleighs, an exquisite wagon, and of course, the carvings on the ship itself revealed the extent of the imagination and skill for the woodcarvers in…

Looking at the world around us you can find inspiration everywhere. We will look at the lake, rocks, leaves, tree bark, fruit, vegetables, sidewalks, bricks…on the surface of everything there is texture. We will look at these textures and interpret them onto a sample board. With just a few carving…