Class Schedule
SMOKE SIGNALS 2026 CLASS SCHEDULE
Earth Knack Stone Age Living Skills
PO# 508 Crestone, CO 81131
719 256 4909
earthknackschool@gmail.com
For questions or to register, call 719-256-4909
Nature Dyes with Plants and Minerals – May 8 – 10 – Fri, Sat, Sun – 3 days – $195
Timber Framing with Hand Tools – May 22 – 26 – Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues – 5 days – $295
Everything Plasters! – May 29, 30, 31 – Fri, Sat, Sun – 3 days – $195
Hand Worked Felt Making – Aug 15, 16 – Sat, Sun – 2 days – $130
Hand Dug Clay Pottery – Aug 22, 23 – Sat, Sun, 2 days – $130
Blacksmithing Basics – Sept 26 – Sat, 1 day – $65
Pioneer Style Soap Making – Sept 27 – Sat, 1 Day – $65
Traditional Hide Tanning – Oct 17, 18 – Sat, Sun, 2 days - $130
Home Canning Meat, Fish & Eggs – Oct 24, 25 – Sat, Sun, 2 days – $130
Internship Opportunities* – April 20 – May 31 and August 10 – September 6
*go to the internship page for details and how to interview
Nature Dyes from Plants & Minerals May 8 – 10 Fri thru Sun 3 days $195
Use garden and wild flowers, forest and desert plants to make many beautiful colors with Patty West, Cheryl Nachtrieb and Robin. Bark, nut hulls, roots, wood, stems and flowers can also make dyes for cloth, yarns and buckskin.
Methods for wild plant harvesting, preserving, mixing,and applying will be taught. Use mordants, metals and minerals, that set the color of the dye more permanently by creating acidic or alkali conditions on your fabric. Many earth clays and minerals can be worked into buckskin and cloth. Learn how. Make ochre “crayons” to create designs on buckskin or even your own skin! Many dye techniques will be taught.
Patty West: Patty has been foraging since she could walk and experimenting with natural dyes since 1990. Trained in botany and botanical interpretation ,she has been teaching 35+ years. Besides teaching plant I.D and uses. foraging, dyeing, wild foods prep and cooking, she also contributes to educational publications and has organized ‘start-up’ wild foods co-ops. Patty says her deep joy is “learning how to incorporate reciprocity and gratitude into a deep relationship to Nature, playing with plant friends, and encouraging others to effectively help their wild communities thrive”.
Cheryl Nachtrieb: Cheryl has been weaving, spinning, knitting, dyeing and filling her life with fiber adventures for over 40 years. Fortunately she has shared her amazing talents at our Earth Knack Gatherings and classes over the years. A fabulous fibers artist who loves to have fun and play with others, she supported community fiber fun and learning through her Fiber Art Shop, The RecycledLamb, in Golden, Colorado for years, and is now a member of the Mountains and Plains Fiber Shed board, encouraging people to use locally produced fiber, dyes and fabric in their everyday lives.
Pioneer Style Timber Framing with Hand Tools
May 22-26 Fri thru Tues 5 days $295 Memorial Day Weekend
A step back to “Yesteryear”….Pioneer style building techniques and Hand Tool Use with Forrest Southam and Robin. A small round structure will be our classroom. Instead of electrical, battery or gas run tools, you will learn to use old style hand tools. Tool use and maintenance will be demonstrated and you will practice with the tools until you “get the knack!”(hee hee)Then you use the tools to make the “joins” for the posts and header beams. Typical Post and Beam construction uses steel plates and metal brackets. We will use Timber Frame construction, teaching joinery techniques like mortise and tenon, fitting the frame work logs together like puzzle pieces. A perfect “join” holds without hardware. A joinery demo gets you started for practice and you will work on several kinds of joins. Throughout this long weekend, natural building topics from foundation to roof will be addressed, as well as a site choice for maximum advantage of sun, shade and water retention. Learn to build affordably, naturally, with style! Join us! pun intended…
Forrest Southam: Forrest’s interests include historic building practices, farming, homesteading, and outdoor adventures. Forrest studied mechanical and manufacturing engineering. He loves learning and dives into subjects with vigor. Forrest has designed and built various timber frame sheds, barns, porches and houses. He and his wife Kayenta and their 3 children live in Boulder, Utah where he works as a general contractor. He has been teaching timber framing and primitive skills living at conferences over the last 4 years. After Earth Knack, Forrest will teach other timber frame workshops this year in Durango, Co. and Boulder, Utah. You can contact him at Forest Timber Frames 208 403 7607
Everything Plasters! May 29, 30, 31 Fri Sat Sun 3 days $195
Want to build your own structure and source your materials from nature?
Come play in the mud with Robin! And possibly Brett LeCompte…
Natural plaster recipes for many different applications will be mixed and applied in sample batches. You will learn to identify workable plaster materials, mix up sample batches of plasters for particular applications, and learn the “mojo” of plastering in several different ways and on multiple test surfaces. Our focus will be on several varieties of floor mixes and wall mixes. Mix up exterior recipes that include prickly pear cactus or egg white and use earth pigments to make colored plasters. Try a flexible mix, strong enough to do some 3-D sculpting on your final coat. Several types of materials including earth clays, minerals, plant and animal ingredients will blend together to make a variety of unusual and effective mixes.
Brett LeCompte: Brett has been a respected natural home builder for decades through his business Swallow’s Nest Natural Building and is a home owner builder too. Brett’s natural, beautiful and unique homes have been featured in the book Small Homes by Lloyd Kahn. Brett led 2 workshops in base and finish plasters at the Crestone Energy Fair. He studied with Athena and Bill Steen, The Straw Bale House authors and with permaculturist Jerome Osentowski.
Guest Instructor Shawn King will share glass bottle wall building techniques during this class.
Hand Worked Felt Making August 15 – 16 Sat, Sun 2 days $130
Learn to make beautiful, soft, flexible, felted fabric using yak, alpaca, sheep and buffalo fibers. Robin will teach assessing quality and suitability of sheared fleece or brushed from the animal fiber, easiest ways to prepare raw fiber off the animal for felting, techniques of hand worked felt, using contrast fiber shades to inlay designs, patterning methods and sizing for hats, slippers, mittens, vests, bags… and how to felt plant and cloth materials into your animal fiber project.
Hand Dug Clay Pottery Aug 22 – 23 Sat Sun 2 days $130
Build clay pots like your ancient ancestors did. Robin will share hand dug clay soils from all around the country to be prepared for use. Learn to assess the % of clay in a soil, identify natural tempers and prepare them to add to your separated clay, mix for a strong, flexible “workable” clay body. Techniques for building and shaping large and small pots and vessels, best drying processes, repairing cracks that form before firing, successfully adding handles or spouts and using natural earth pigment and plant syrup to coat, color, glaze or design your cured pot will also be taught.
Blacksmithing Basics for Beginners Sept 26 Sat 1 day $65
Learn basic principles of metallurgy and blacksmithing techniques. In Paul Revere’s day they called it “Iron Mongery”! Robin will instruct you in lighting and managing a hand blower pioneer style farm forge. Learn to make wood charcoal in the fire pit for forge use. Proper handling of forge tools, how to “move” and shape metal, how to “read the colors” to determine metal temperature and “read the sparks” to determine content and hardness of the metal will be demonstrated and practiced. Once you get the feel of the forge and tools, you will spend time making hand wrought items, learning to “draw out”, twist, bend, chamfer, hardy cut and other tips and tricks of working hot metal with hand tools.
Old Timey Soap Making Sept 27 Sun 1 Day $65 with Mattie Belle Lakish and Robin Stir the big wooden paddle around the great big cauldron as you watch your ingredients of wood ash and elk fat blend together and turn into thick liquidy soap. It’s magic! Also, ‘easy to make in your kitchen’ recipes will be taught and you will make your own soap with natural herbs and oils.
Mattie Belle Lakish: One of the original homesteaders at the ‘Back to the Land’ community in Ava, Missouri in the 70’s, Mattie Belle is always sharing, teaching, and role modeling her grounded, natural lifestyle. She writes a column on organic, high altitude gardening, nutritious and medicinal plant properties, pest control and water conservation.She’s taught classes at Earth Knack over many years.
Traditional Hide Tanning Oct 17 – 18 Sat, Sun 2 days $130
Join Robin for a “smorgasbord” of hide tanning techniques. Learn natural, ancestral wet and dry scrape methods for preparing the pelts of coon and beaver pelts, and skins of deer and elk. Practice traditional brain and fat softening techniques and try out a variety of bone, wood and metal tools. Learn about rawhide preparation, parfleche techniques, hide frame construction and hide glue.
Home Canning Meat, Fish, Eggs Oct 24 – 25 Sat, Sun, 2 days – $130 with Robin
Pickles and jams are yummy and lovely on the root cellar shelf…. But, ‘push come to shove’, you want to pack those shelves with foods that fill the belly and feed the muscles! Get some protein in your jars for long lasting energy. Learn to use the pressure cooker at altitude and tips and tricks for a perfect seal every time.
Internship Opportunities* April 20 – May 31 and August 10- September 6
*go to the internship page for details and how to interview
The Earth Knack camp area is in the woods along the banks of pristine Cottonwood Creek.
Bring your own tent and camp sleeping gear. Use our fully equipped outdoor kitchen to prepare your meals. Oils, spices, and teas provided, along with all the cooking pots, pans and eating dishes. Bring a personal cooler to tie into the creek for cold storage, a secure lidded container for your trash and another for dry food storage (5 gallon buckets with screw on lids work great) and a water bottle. There are gas stove tops, adobe “horno” baking oven, solar ovens, dutch ovens and wood charcoal grills.
Facilities include composting toilets and a lovely solar shower structure.
If you choose to camp, it is included in your tuition.
If you want to reserve a tipi space there is an additional $25 each person each night.
Bring your own blankets and sheets or sleeping bag and pillow for tipi lodging.
If you are interested in on site airbnb options use the airbnb site for booking and payment.
The Earth Knack Garden House; A unique, artful home
https://airbnb.com/h/earthknackgardenhouse
Ways to contact Earth Knack: 719 256 4909 earthknackschool@gmail.com
Earth Knack / Blankenship P.O.# 508 Crestone, CO. 81131 …..or you can try smoke signals!