Choose a Category or Select a Class Below
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health & home
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Making Healing Creams, Salves & Lip Balm
Wellness is not just about what we put into our bodies, it is also about what we put onto our bodies. While many people today avoid skincare products with synthetic ingredients, there is a growing crowd of people who have given up searching the ingredient labels in stores and have decided to make their own high-quality healthy skin care product. This course use bio-mimicry or nature as our teacher. Together we will focus on a handful of healing herbs that can be easily found or grown in your garden. You will learn how to infuse oils with herbs and how to blend these oils to create healing salves, creams and lip balm. Upon leaving this class, you will be empowered to repeat the process on your own for years to come.
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Wildcrafting w/Jim McDonald Series
One of the oldest professions in the civilized world is the collection and preparation of wild plants for use as medicine, special foods, or home remedies. Ancient as this skill is it is far from outdated. The very best way to obtain this knowledge is by apprenticing yourself to a practicing wildcrafter and following him around all you can. Join us for a very special seasonal plant walk, discussion, and gathering of some traditional wild medicinals. Herbalist Jim Mcdonald will be leading participants around the fields and woods surrounding the Michigan Folk School to explore the medicinal virtues, identification, folklore and preparation of many of the common "weeds" and wildflowers we pass by every day. The information presented will be both specific and practical, based on Jim's twenty-one years of experience in gathering, preparing, and using herbal remedies, and provide a basis for participants to incorporate what they have learned into usable skills with which to maintain and restore health.
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Wildcrafting Medicine Making Workshops
As a follow up to Jim McDonald’s medical plant walk at the Michigan Folk School*, this class will lead you through the steps of how to harvest and prepare plants for medicine. Participants will have the opportunity to review and discuss the plants and medicinal preparations featured on Jim’s plant walk. You will receive samples of herbal infusions and tinctures. Additionally, you will go home with instructions for how to repeat the processes at home.
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Soap Making Workshop: Introduction
Learn how to formulate your own recipes, properly use and store lye, how to mix lye and water, oils for soap-making, goat milk, fragrance oils versus essential oils, super-fatting, additives and exfoliants, coloring, molding and curing. You will take home recipes, a list of sources for supplies and equipment, as well as a bar of soap you will make during the class.
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Soap Making Workshop: Color, Texture & Swirls
This beginner-to-intermediate class explores the different types of soap-making colorants and textures. You will learn how to locate natural colorants and incorporate them into your soap, dry and wet mixing techniques and explore texturizing soap. You will take home new recipes, a list of sources for colorants and equipment, and a bar of soap we will make during class.
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Soap Making Workshop: Essential Oils & Aromatherapy
Take your knowledge of soap making even further with an exploration of essential oils. Essential oils are natural aromatic compounds found in the seeds, bark, stems, roots, flowers, and other parts of plants. They are known for their powerful aromas and have been used throughout history for medicinal and therapeutic benefits. We will explore the uses of essential oils, including relaxation and sleep, stress relief, green cleaning, muscle tension and pain, and, of course, skin care. In the class, you'll learn about essential oil safety, how essential oils are produced, and common methods of use. We will explore the intensity of fragrance and Hedonic tone assessment as each of us mix our own unique perfume bouquet to take home.
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