Plants and Woodcraft Skills Class

PLANTS AND WOODCRAFT

SURVIVING IN THE DESERT (WOODS, ...MOUNTAINS):
PLANTS AND CORDAGE

Yucca

Fiber from plants makes rope, nets, baskets, tinder, strong bow strings, clothing, and more...

Several times a year, I will be exploring varied themes of survival skills in the desert or woods.

Today, we will learn edible, medicinal, and other uses of a selected plant, and make natural cordage the old way from plants in their natural state.

There will also be meditations to enhance working with plants.

OLD-WAYS SKILLS: FURNITURE IN THE VILLAGE

Expanded awareness is the house where the "mother of invention" lives.

Using materials we notice when aware on the landscape, we will craft food bowls and water vessels, eating utensils, and simple, comfortable furniture for "primitive" living.

Come learn multiple ways to make yourself very much at home in the natural world.

BASKETS FROM PLANTS

A Craft?

An essential Survival Skill?

A Practical Meditation?

All Three!

There is a special kind of magic that you can feel when you gather willow and create a basket. The finished basket is only part of the magic.

Come experience:

The ancient attitude of Caretaker while gathering
A physical coordination that may be new to you
A constructive way to release tension
The enjoyment of making something in community
And, of course, the birth of a beautiful and useful tool from your hands

Depending on class location, we may will also have opportunities to gather and make baskets from pine needles, cattails, rootlets and grasses.