Classes
Class offerings:
- Traditional Skills and Wilderness Survival
- Basketry/Textile Arts
- Martial Arts and Meditation
- Ethnobotany/Farm and Garden
Spring and summer 2010
Feb. 6-7 Willow Basketry and Gathering
basic round (beginners), oval, square or ribwork (also beginners) - you choose and cut your own willow to take home too.
Feb. 13-14 - Coiled Pussy Willow 'Acorn' Earrings
These are tiny coiled baskets in pine needles or willow root. If you don't want to work so small you can make a larger pine needle basket and work with willow skeins or Palm thread. We will learn to make patterns by carrying along colored threads and/or using beads.
Mar. 6-7- Swirl Medallion
Use fine willow skeins and diagonal twining to make a medallion necklace with a spiraling pattern. I will teach skeining but provide trimmed material for your project. These need to be very fine, if you bring your own skeins.
Mar. 13-14- Wool Felt Shoes
We will measure our own feet, cut patterns and sew slippers or boots out of pre-felted wool. (We call these 'Boo-tays') Learn to make your own felt at home from old sweaters or blankets. To make some for a friend, draw an outline of their foot and bring it along.
March 20-21- Willow Basketry 2
A second session- See above. Or come again if you can't get enough of willows...
Apr. 3-4- Ukrainian Easter Eggs
Join me for my Easter tradition making fine lines on eggs in wax and dye in many ancient and modern designs. These eggs traditionally protect the hearth and home and are given to loved ones as gifts.
Apr. 10-11- White Willow, Hazel, Willow bark and Cherry
Collect and peel willow and hazel for white stick baskets. Collect and peel Willow, Hazel, Maple and/or Cherry bark. We will also start a traditional West Coast twined tray or clam basket in whole shoot twining when the peeling is not appealing... in the evenings.
Apr. 24-25- Wrapped Twining
This technique is used from the South Pacific to Siberia, and Japan to South Africa, and in many parts of North and South America. We will look at wrapped twining in the West Coast, Plateau, Great Lakes, and the ancient Great Basin. Many soft materials will be available for you to start your own basket, or two, or three.
May 1-2- Weave a Willow Yurt
This continues a project begun last October with Yurt Master William Coperthwaite, who led the frame and roof raising of a beautiful, two-tiered wood yurt. Now we start weaving the willow wattle walls, so that later in May we can apply mud to weatherproof and insulate. View our living willow fences, arches and get ideas for your own willow structures. This is an ongoing project with William Coperthwaite and Mud Builder Kiko Denzer. Later comes the mud…
May 15-16- Beaded and Feathered Basketry
There are many ways to attach beads or feathers to basketry. We will look at coiled and twined baskets, adding embellishments both in process and over finished baskets. Choose your style or make a few starts. With Margaret and bead weaver Carol Mathewson.
May 22-23- Fiber and Paper Luminaries
Create a lamp or candle holder (or your own creation) with natural fibers, thread, and hand-made translucent paper, with Fiber Artist Sheila Filan and Margaret Mathewson. Sheila lives and works in Ashland and has taught at SOU. She works in paper, cloth, collage and found objects as well as natural and other fibers.
May 29-31- Mud Building
Learn about making mud structures. Identify types of mud- plaster for covering existing walls and buildings; sculptural mud for shaping and decorative ornaments; natural (fireproof!) insulating mud; mud for natural colors and paints; and cob or adobe mud for walls, ovens hearths and entire homes. Hopefully the yurt weaving begun May 1st, will be done and we will begin putting mud over the walls. Guest Instructor mud builder and author Kiko Denzer.
June 5-6- Natural Dyes and Mineral Paints
Learn many plants and lichens for dying wools every color of the rainbow, as well as mineral based paints and natural fixatives for buckskin or wood. Bring something of wool or silk to dye, or a buckskin shirt to paint. Learn to spin wool on a drop spindle.
July 1-2-3- Natural Movement and Traditional Life Skills
Explore the evolution of human movement and basic ancestral skills. with Siskiyou Aikikai Chief Instructor Darrell Bluhm and Margaret Mathewson. We will include concepts drawn from the disciplines of Aikido, Iaido, Feldenkrais R, Tai Chi, and Yoga to both relax and sharpen our understanding of basic human life skills such as fire, cordage, stone tool making, weaving, and finding, processing and eating wild foods. This year’s retreat will focus on the human quest for food.
July 19-23- Echoes in Time
gathering at Willamette Mission State Park near Salem.
Aug. 27-28- 29-30-31- Summer Natural Basketry Intensive
Back by popular demand. This week we will explore natural materials basketry from many angles- large and small, soft bags and tough burden baskets, and all the colors nature provides for our designs. Come with an unfinished object (UFO) or start new projects. All levels welcome. Styles include the very traditional and the completely fanciful. You choose.
Sept. 23-24-25-26- Art Moves
Re-Invent yourself with Fiber Artist and Feldenkrais R practitioner Sheila Filan of Asland. Invigorate your artistic mind and get those creative juices flowing with many projects designed to open the flow of new ideas and inspirations. At the same time, we will use the Feldenkrais R method to relax, realign, and strengthen our connection to our bodies. This is a retreat for all levels and body types. It is not strenuous.
All classes $50 per day plus materials
Inquire for materials fees and work trade opportunities- Look on-line for photos of the center- ancientartscenter.com
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