Workshops
I travel nomadically as a teacher and am able to guide groups of up to 20 people. If you have interest in me sharing an offering at your farm, venue, retreat center or home please contact me!
Wilderness Travel
I spend several months a year living in the wilderness traveling by foot. Everything I need to live I get from the land or carry on my back. Alone, with friends, or with students these are some of the best months of my year.
I have been a foot traveler for 10 years and have walked over 10,000 miles. Some trips are more hunting and gathering based like the winter (80 days) I lived in Southern Utah in a handbuilt wikiup with a primitive trapline and fire making kit. Another time I walked in Hells Canyon Oregon for 24 days eating only wild food. Other trips are more distance based with a mix of foraged and grocery food provisions and some backpacking gear, such as the winter I walked 900 miles across the Sonoran and Mojave deserts. Or the 500 miles loop I walked in New Mexico in under 30 days. I walk on trails, washes, ridgelines and cross country through mountains, deserts and prairies. These walks are not so much about becoming but being, living.
I do talks on my trips, I offer consultations for people wanting to go on their own trip, and sometimes I take people out on adventures.
Primitive Pottery
I made my first primitive pot in 2015 and enjoyed cooking all sorts of primitive meals in it. I've since caught the pottery bug and have been making dozens or even hundreds of pots, bowls and mugs every year. I wild harvest and process all the clay and tempur and then fire the finished vessels in a primitive bonfire. I list most of my finished pots, bowls and mugs for sale on this website so you can start dining with wild delight right away! I also take custom orders, but keep in mind these are primitive pots fired on open flame! They have smoke clouds and minor impurities, but that's what gives them their soul. If you want perfection then find someone with a kiln, but if you want a wild sprite holding your morning coffee or evening meal, then look no further.
In rare instances I'll share the whole process with friends, but as of yet I do not "teach" primitive pottery.
Animal Processing
I've been butchering and killing much of the meat I consume since I left high school. I've processed all manner of roadkill from deer, elk and antelope to racoon, skunks and house cats. Eventually I learned how to kill sheep, goats, llamas, chickens, etc. with nothing but a knife and then use that same knife to process and eat the animal in its entirety.
I offer 1-3 day classes where you learn how to give the animal a humane, calm and conscious death before breaking down the entire animal into delicious food. We make organ sausage stuffed in the large intestine or haggis, cook bread in the stomach, make tender roasts, steaks and braises, bone broth, jerky, render fat and make pemmican. We also worked the hide, hocks and stomach into expedient leather. We also mess with sinews, horns and toes. And so much more!
These classes draw lots of students and will often eat the entire animal in 2 or 3 days, but you'll leave with the knowledge to do it yourself. You might even find yourself showing up to work late because there is a deer in the back of your car.
Wet Felting
Nothing's funner or more organic than throwing wool down on a table and massaging it into a hat or bag. Felt makes great hats, mittens, booties, bags and water bottle holders, or a sitting or sleeping mat. It's thick and offers great rain protection, insulation and padding.
Classes last 1-3 days and students learn the simple but subtle art of wet felting. All it requires is wool, soap, water and a flat surface. So simple even a politician could do it!
Don't have time for a class yet? I offer many felt items for sale and can do custom orders.
Hide Tanning
Buckskin, buckskin, BUCKSKIN! What better way to relate to the earth and all the critters that walk upon it then to wear them?
People the world over have been wearing hides to protect our hairless bodies from the elements since the dawn of time. Learn to tan buckskin with me and we'll make sure people continue wearing them all the way through the dusk of time!
I teach the supple art of tanning wet-scraped buckskin using smoke, egg yolks and brains, and a decent amount of muscle and will power.
Over 3-5 days you will scrape the hair and epidermis from the hide, membrane it, flush out hide glues, brain it (dress it), wring it, soften it and then you'll smoke the softest material you've ever felt to preserve the finished hide!
Leather Tailoring
Want to go deeper? Tan a bunch of hides and hire me to help you turn them into the clothing or bag of your dreams! You'll learn how to read the hide and lay a pattern, cut sewing thong, and all the basic stitches you'll ever need to keep you dudded up in the most timeless fashion.
That all sounds great, but I already get my workout at the gym? Lucky you, I sell custom clothing, but get ready to shell out a pretty penny. An item of buckskin clothing runs from hundreds of dollars to thousands, but hey this stuff never wears out so your grandchildren will still be wearing your rugged raiment!
Movement Arts
I make space to creatively venture into what a body can do, and what it can create solo or with a group of people through movement games, dance prompts, drills, and tasks that challenge awareness and ability. My classes are playful, safe places to be vulnerable, try new things, and spend a number of hours connecting to one important component of life, which is having a body!
I study modern dance, and have an assortment of freaky movement/athletic pursuits.