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Open Studio Categories
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bushcraft
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Wilderness Survival
Going on a hike or camping in southern Michigan can be a fun and exciting experience. It can also become dangerous if your plans, the weather, or the unexpected happens. This course will give you some of the basic skills you will need to keep yourself safe in a wilderness environment. Below are a few of the items covered in this course:
Course Fee: $120 - Supply Fee: $20 Location: Folk School
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Flint Napping
Have you ever stumbled upon an ancient arrowhead? Have you wondered how our ancestors crafted and sharpened tools from stone like axe heads, knife blades, and arrow points? This course is both highly informational and greatly hand-on as students learn how flint napping evolved and how to identify appropriate base materials from which you will produce a variety of sharpened stone tools. This class will introduce the basic techniques of pressure flaking and percussion and the exhilaration of crafting a thing of beauty and utility from a rock. Materials fee includes a practice stone and a Knapper’s tool kit that will include and abrasives, billet, and a pressure flakers. This class pairs very well with the Crafting a Long Bow of Small Game Trapping.
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Introduction to Primitive Skills
In this workshop we will explore the world of hands-on skills and survival awarenesses that bridge the gap between ourselves and the natural world. Learn simple carving techniques, plant fiber cordage wrap, basic friction-by-fire bow drill, and basic medicinal plant identification. This workshop equalizes the use of your eyes, ears, nose, and hands to become aware of our surroundings and relationship to the earth. While this one day experience is taught through a relaxed tone, this is a serious participatory workshop that will get you started on basic survival skills that can provide a lifetime of fascinating learning. The course is perfect for the young, old, and an ideal family experience. Workshop will take place in semi-sheltered outdoor space with some venturing out for materials and lessons.
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Small Game Hide Tanning
Don't throw that rabbit skin away! Turn it into a durable, breathable, soft, washable fabric to use for clothing, bags or beadwork. You'll learn brain tanning, a method used for centuries, as well as bark tanning. How to skin an animal, prepare the hide, apply tanning mixture and smoke it. You'll find yourself deeply engaged in this hands-on, transforming project
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Natural Building Workshop
With the growing national interest in sustainability and natural building we present The Natural Building Workshop: Introduction to Cob, Strawbale, Thatching, & Framing. This course is for anyone who wishes to receive a introduction into natural building and appropriate technology that will help you to discover the beauty, simplicity, and affordability of natural building. Our two-day Workshop is a unique course of study providing lecture, demonstration and hands-on exploration of earthen and natural elements that are used to create structures and shelters. This workshop combines an introduction to straw, cob, plaster, thatch and other natural building materials. Topics of exploration include, but are not limited to, foundations, earthen/cob floors, timber/round-pole framing, strawbale walls, natural insulation, natural paints and plasters, and roof systems, including thatching. The course will not build a building, instead students will journey through multiple stations where partial structures will be used for lecture and hands on learning. This is an intense fast paced workshop. We will be outdoors the entire time and you are almost guaranteed to get dirty - so dress accordingly. Some power tools will be incorporated and safety equipment will be provided.
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Primitive Trapping
In Bushcraft, survival is a lazy man’s game. The goal of survival is to burn less calories than you expend daily. Hunting requires a great expenditure of calories in order to procure that meat. That is why trapping is such a pivotal skill because traps will work for you while you’re sleeping or when you’re at camp whittling a stick. In this weekend course we will explore basic building, setting and evaluating of primitive traps & snares. We will learn basic animal habits, baiting strategies, and how to force/fence your sets to better your success rate. The traps will be created using natural materials available from the forest. We will also only build and use humane traps (also called a live animal trap) that contain an animal without injuring or killing. The first session focus on deadfall traps while the second session will concentrate on snares. The goal of this course is to give you the skills necessary to make and set, effective traps and snares.
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Roadkill 101
It has been stated that thousands of pounds of high quality protein and fat are wasted by our automobile culture every year. If we are able to transcend the stigmas and jokes and learn the real possibilities of roadkill meat, we can turn a tragedy into a bounty and give honor to those animals by putting them to use. In this one day course, we will learn to assess the quality of a killed animal, the legal route to acquire it, how to skin, and how to make use of it’s meat, fat, organs, and more. Some discussion of skin preservation and utilization will also be covered. This will be a hands on class so come with an open mind and old clothes, and be prepared to never see your daily drives in the same way.
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Fire-by-Friction Workshop
This course introduces students to the basic fire-by-friction methods and expands learning with some new techniques and advanced scenarios including a “no knife, no modern tools” fire drill. It is an excellent opportunity to work with our instructors on advancing your survival knowledge as well as applying these skills without the use of modern tools.
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