Guest Instructor Workshops
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Traditional Shoe Making: 10th Century Scandianavian Turn Shoe — Guest Instructor, Jason Hovattar
In this class we will begin by making a casting of your foot (they
will truly be custom built!), then move on to patterns and leather
selection, cutting and skiving, butt stitching and assembly. Once
the upper and sole are attached you will move on to turning and hammering,
closure and finishing, and finally, "gooping" the soles
with an outer tread coating.
The uppers are made of 8-9 oz. American bison and the soles are
heavy oil tanned latigo with an outer coating of recycled ground
truck tire dust mixed with barge cement. When the rubber coating wears
down you can simply paint more on.
These can become your every day shoes! From city streets to wilderness
adventures, this shoe is the most comfortable and durable you will
ever wear — and you can wear them hard!
This pair of shoes, if well taken care of, could easily last you
for the rest of your life. Space is striclty limited to 5 students
and we expect it to fill quickly so don't delay!
(Bison hide, as well as all other shoe materials and shoe-making
tools are provided.)
| August 3-5 | Great Meadows, NJ | $450 | ›› Sorry, This workshop is now Full. ‹‹ (If you wish to be placed on the Waiting List to be notified should a space come available, send us an e-mail.) |
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Cherokee Blow Guns & Thistle Darts — Guest Instructor, Doug Meyer
Doug Meyer has, literally, written the book on River
Cane Blowguns. We first met Doug at the 2007 Flint Ridge
Knap-in, where we were completely fascinated by his River Cane Blowguns, Thistle
Darts and other cool items, and have finally convinced him to come to New Jersey
and offer a full day workshop!
Each student will choose their
own piece of cane, learn the secrets to removing the nodes in both modern
and primitive fashion, prepare and straighten their blow gun, and add
all the finishing touches.
In
addition to making your own blowgun, you will learn how to make Thistle
Darts from the master himself! Doug can "spin up a dart" faster
than you can believe, and there will be plenty of thistle heads on hand
for you to learn and practice, and make your own set of darts for your
new blowgun. Julie has been looking forward to this workshop for a long
time, and is already brushing up her dart-making technique to try and
keep up with Doug!
Once your blowgun and darts are complete, you will get a chance to practice
your accuracy on the archery range, and learn how to use this portable,
stealthy and highly useful hunting tool.
This is going to be a GREAT day — one that we will be talking about for
a long time — so don't miss out!
| October 29 | Great Meadows, NJ | $95 | ››The dates for this workshop have passed, but we'll let you know next time it's offered ‹‹ |
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Preparing, Preserving & Using Gourds — Guest Instructor, Doug Meyer
Bowls, cups, spoons, quivers, baskets, buckets, containers, sifters,
rattles, drums, dolls, toys, masks... Gourds come in all shapes and sizes
and can truly be used for almost anything!
Doug
Meyer has once again agreed to stay for a second day to teach
this unique and amazing workshop on choosing, preparing, cleaning, drying
and using Gourds.
You'll have the opportunity to make several different
objects from gourds, such as a cup, bowl or spoon, a blowgun dart quiver
(which, if you're also attending Blowguns & Thistle Darts on Oct
29 will
come in very handy!) a container and/or sifter and much more!
One of the most versitile and easiest to work with raw materials, gourds can be grown in almost any home garden or found in any farmer's market, so are also easy and inexpensive to obtain. Don't miss this fun and entertaining workshop, and discover just how useful Gourds can be!
| October 30 | Great Meadows, NJ | $95 | ››The dates for this workshop have passed, but we'll let you know next time it's offered ‹‹ |
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River Cane: Tools, Toys & Gadgets — Guest Instructor, Doug Meyer
River Cane is an incredibly useful resource that is often overlooked by the traditional outdoors-adventurer. Doug Meyer has agreed to stick around for a second day to teach this new workshop on the multitude of other uses for River Cane. Over the course of the day you will learn how to make everything from whistles and turkey calls, to pipe stems, beads, needles, fish hooks, anchors, floats, vials, knives and much more. Eeven how to use river cane to make a torch and bow drill fireboard. We have never met anyone with as much experience using river cane as Doug, and are really looking forward to learning all the cool uses he has discovered and re-discovered over the past decade. Come on out and join us, and we know you'll learn amazing new skills with an abundant, renewable and easy-to-work-with resource!
›› This workshop is not currently
on the schedule,
but we'll
let you know the next time it's offered.‹‹
Guest Instructors
Doug Meyer
After a tour in the US Army,
Doug Meyer graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
where he received his BA in History and Anthropology. It was after attending
an Anthropology class that is interest in experimental archeology was
peaked, and he began actively practicing primitive technology under Steve
Watts.
Doug's main focus is blowguns, but he has tried his hand at most types
of primitive skills. He has studied tracking and fire making with
Charles Worsham and flintknapping with Dr. Errett Callahan, for whom he
has been a teaching assistant the past 5 years. Doug
also enjoys martial arts and holds a shodan rank in Ninjutsu where he
has studied with Stephen Hayes, Dr Richard McCall and Jonathan Kingsley.
Doug has been brain tanning for 10 years and has tanned hundreds of hides.
Jason Hovatter
As far back as Jason can remember, and in nearly every situation, he
would stop and wonder, “How did folks do this before our
modern age of convenience and forgetfulness?” More importantly
perhaps, he wondered "How will we do it after!?"
In
his early 20’s
Jason traveled around the United Staes on foot and by hopping the
occasional freight train, from forest to town and back again. He visited
skills gatherings doing leatherwork along the way, through which he met
and apprenticed with a master shoe maker in southern Oregon.
Jason then
started his own custom shoemaking business and, further deepening his
love of ancient footwear styles, traveled to medieval re-enactments
all over the western U.S. where he made many styles of period shoes
from antiquity. For the past several years he has
found great satisfaction in teaching both period and modern shoe making
techniques to a growing army of new cobblers and cordwainers, and he is
looking forward to expanding that group to include a new batch of East
Coasters!
(For more information on Jason and his West Coast workshops, check
out his website).