Workshops 2020!

2020 has already started with a bang! I’ve been teaching and traveling non stop right through the new year. It’s been great to see so many great people, and so many lovely places. I’ve also put my carving time into turbo mode. I just have so many ideas and designs I want to put down.

My latest batch of kuksas and spoons are my best work to date. But even with the mountain of carvings I just piled up, I’m already thinking of the next batch! The next turn in the road. I’ve had a couple weeks off staying at my folks place in Upstate New York.

In a week I head to Minnesota to prepare for a month full of classes.

My next courses are in March and they’re going to be very exciting. I’ve been thinking a lot during my travels and how to improve my courses, and how I’m teaching them.

My first stop on the tour is Wood Week at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota March 7-9. Back by popular demand - Kuksa Carving on the Lake.

Then I roll on down to Decorah Iowa at the great Vesterheim Museum to teach my next three courses. These are pretty special I must admit.

March 16-18 Advanced Kuksa Carving

March 12-14 Beginner Kuksa Carving

The advanced course is a great for people that have taken my standard kuksa course before. We're going to think outside the box with design theory, as well as how to use your tools in ways you may not have thought of. The class will also riff off of pieces from the actual museum collection. This is a very rare and unique opportunity to learn a craft, a well as peeling back through the hundreds of years of handcraft in the archives.

The last class I’ll be teaching with the one of the best spoon carvers in the world! Fred Livesay! Book Here!
This is a very unique course which will be using the archive collection as well. We wanted to offer a class that we just haven’t seen offered.
It’s the perfect course for someone who’s already learned the fundamental basics of how to make a proper spoon. There are more to spoons than formulas and we want to focus on advanced tool techniques, and how to read the wood better. Unusually bent wood makes for great solutions for projects.

We will also be covering natural dyes, stains, and how to blend paint to achieve interesting textured effects like old hand me down carvings of yesteryear that we’ll be showing you in class from the archives.

You can get more info over at my Workshops page.