Announcing our 2025 Calendar of Workshops and Events at Woodspirit School in Ashland, WI

A warm hello to students & friends of Woodspirit School—

Now that our last class—Birch Bark Star and Wool Felt Ornaments—is done for the year we are focusing on our line up of 2025 weekend classes—with repeats as well as new additions. We are excited to share details about these upcoming courses with you.

Craft Night Potlucks

This past season’s Craft Nights have been awesome. We enjoyed amazing food, conversations, and a good mix of locals and students coming from all over the US and Canada who value craft. They brought their families and met their fellow classmates and teachers before the weekend courses.

In 2025 we will continue combining Craft Night Potlucks with Meet & Greet Events. The evening before a weekend class the community and the students in the upcoming class are invited to meet the teacher and watch a demonstration or presentation of the instructor’s craft and work. It is a great way to kick off the weekend, socialize with others and learn about the different craftspeople who teach at the school. Families and travel companions are also invited.

We provide the soup, wooden plates, spoons, and bowls. We ask you to bring a tasty side dish and your preferred beverage. RSVP by text is required.

If you are a Chequamegon Bay, Ashland and Bayfield County local resident, or visiting the area from afar, we hope you will come to Craft Night and say hi to Mike, Dawson, Derek, Jarrod, Jazmin, Beth, Scogin, Wesley, Hege and Steen even if you are not signed up for their workshop.

Signing up for text reminders is the best way to RSVP for one of these Craft Nights.

Craft Night Potluck Meet & Greet at Woodspirit School Ashland, WI for Barn the Spoon, guest instructor and famous spoon carver from the UK, 2024

2025 Class Preview

We begin the 2025 season in April with Bird Carving: Songbirds of Lake Superior with Mike Loeffler who is an avid birder and works as a timber framer and teacher in Grand Marais, MN. This class is a good introduction to wood carving and a lovely way to enjoy the wonder of birds common in our area.

In June, Jarrod Dahl @jarrod__dahl teaches a Spoon Carving Intensive. Jarrod is a clear, methodical and highly experienced craft teacher and spoon carver. Watch him axe a spoon blank lickity split and share a couple of his trick wood carving moves. At the end of the month Dawson Moore @michigansloyd comes back to teach the Danish Cord Post-and-Rung Stool. This class is your opportunity to make a piece of fine mid-century modern furniture and learn how to weave a “rush” pattern seat with Danish paper cord. Jazmin had the pleasure of taking the class in 2024—it was challenging and exhilarating and worth it. We enjoy her handmade furniture in the living room every day.

Derek Brabender @greenwoodspoons is co-teaching a Pole Lathe Turning Intensive with Jarrod Dahl in July. Get sweaty turning a wooden bowl without electricity—it’s an empowering experience. Jarrod is mentoring Derek to continue teaching this course solo in the future here and at North House Folk School. Beth Dow of @fieldworkgoods will teach a Hand Sewn Leather Minim Bag. Learn to do saddle stitching on veg tan leather and make a useful and beautiful object—a cross body bag for books and things. Beth has an amazing sense of design and creates high quality work. Jazmin Hicks-Dahl @loveblueindigo will teach 4 half-days of Shibori, Ikat & Indigo over one weekend. If you sign up for all four, you will learn three different resist patterns, how to tie and dye thread for ikat weaving or yarn for knitting, and experience a fermentation indigo vat.

In August, Scogin Zimermann-Mayo teaches The Hundred Stick Willow Basket. This is an excellent class to learn the fundamentals of willow basketry. Scogin is a patient and experienced teacher who teaches regularly at Winter Count and other primitive skills gatherings. Jarrod Dahl teaches the Swedish Picnic Basket made with a plank bottom and split willow weavers, a technique he learned on a study trip in Sweden and Norway with a grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation. We will be rolling up our sleeves and getting dusty with Flax Work Day 2025—processing the big pile of homegrown flax we have accumulated over the past 8 years. And we close out the month with a new class Relief Carving with Wesley Hathaway @wesley.hathaway who is studying with master carvers Phillip Odden and Else Bigton. Students will make a bread bowl or bread board with decorative relief carving. Wesley is a skilled craftsman, artist and former participant in North House Folk School’s Artisan Development Program.

In September we will have a special guest from Norway, Hege Aasdal @kurvmaker_hege_aasdal. She has been a research fellow at the Norwegian Handcraft Institute for three years—researching the traditional basketry of Norway. She has been a prolific teacher and maker of many kinds of Scandinavian baskets. She has worked with materials from Hazel and Pine to Birch Root and Boiled Spruce. She will teach a four-day Norwegian Vedmeis: Split Willow Basketry Class. Material preparation will be a big focus in this class and will include a harvest walk in our local willow patch. The weekend after, Jarrod will teach Knutkorg—Scandinavian Knot Basket and teach you to split cedar, bend Willow and carve notched joinery.

In October we welcome back Steen Madsen @steenhedegaard from Denmark for two four-day basket weaving sessions Session 1: Buff & White Willow Basketry and Session 2: Buff & White Willow Basketry. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a true master. Steen can challenge you at any level—from beginners to advanced weavers and he can teach as many basket designs as you can think of. He is an historian as well as a swing dancer and seems to have an endless well of energy in class.

In November our last class of the year will be Birch Bark & Felted Wool Ornaments with Jazmin Hicks-Dahl. Spend the day making stars with pompoms and felted snowmen for winter decoration or gifts.

2025 Waitlists & Registration

Registration opens January 1, 2025. You can sign up now for the waitlist on courses you are interested in. You will receive an email as soon as registration opens for that class. Waitlists help us get an idea of the interest level for individual classes. Spaces are limited, so register early. For a complete list of 2025 classes and events go to our Calendar. Our one room craft school is located on the shores of Lake Superior with willow beds and a textile & dye garden. We hope to see you this year!

Thanks for following along with our craft school in Northern Wisconsin.

—Jazmin & Jarrod, Woodspirit School

www.woodspiritschool.com