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Arts, Crafts, and Traditional Skills
at
Farm Camp
As adults, we remember that much of the pleasure of coming to camp was making cool stuff in Arts and Crafts and bringing these treasures home. The other less tangible thing we brought home was tactile and reasoning skills that became a part of us. Devil's Gulch Ranch Camp is no different in offering a crafts component, except for our focus on local materials and traditional skills. Most of our crafts utilize materials that the ranch produces or that are gleaned from the forest, creeks, and meadows; many of the techniques are from our colonial times and earlier.
Plastics choke our landfills and to a large extent have pushed out the containers of our grandparents’ time. Tupperware has replaced the woven basket and clay pot, ziplock bags have replaced the leather or rawhide pouch, PET bottles have replaced the clay or glass jar, and the 5-gallon plastic bucket the hogshead (small wooden barrel). Students at Devil's Gulch Ranch Camps learn how to make the original counterparts of plastic containers and more.
These activities are a part of Devil's Gulch Ranch Farm Camps and of workshops for all ages year-round.
Pottery
Learning this traditional skill literally puts us in touch with the earth! Pottery thrown on the kick wheel links our campers to centuries of tradition practiced by many world cultures. The students use natural clay to form their pottery, glaze the objects with natural materials from the forest or the farm, and fire them in our kiln or in a charcoal-fired pit. Because of the drying time needed before firing, only students enrolled in 2 or more weeks will be able to glaze their pots.
Bone, Antler, and Horn
In modern times, these parts of an animal are usually wasted. Our campers learn to make traditional tools and jewelry from them, starting with raw materials.
In the past, horn was used to make many objects of everyday life which are now made with plastic, including combs, containers, buttons, rims on eyeglasses, handles on tools, and objects of art. Participating campers will prepare raw cow or goat horn, shape, steam bend, finish, and possibly perform scrimshaw.
Bone and Antler was used for tools, tool handles, buttons, and objects of art. Student will learn to shape, finish, mount, and scrimshaw bone and antler.
Cordage
The knowledge of how to make string and rope is one of the most basic and important of human life skills. Cordage has been used by humans for ages as a tool in fishing and hunting, for carrying burdens, constructing shelters, in textiles, for tying bundles of possessions together, and so on.
Campers discover which plants on the ranch property yield good fiber and how to extract and process them. Then they learn techniques of plying the fibers into cord by hand or using a rope walk. We will also cover knotted netting.
Basket Weaving
Using natural plant material, mostly from the farm, students learn traditional basket-weaving skills. The patient labor that goes into making a basket can be appreciated whenever the basket is used for years to come.
Working with Wool and Fur
Students make traditional dyes to color the wool from our sheep. Then they can use the dyed wool in the soothing and beautiful craft of dry felting, or they can spin the wool into yarn for weaving or knitting.
Friction Fire Making
Make fire by friction with a hand drill made from buckeye water sprout and a mantle made from alder.
Feather Jewelry and Tying Flies
During the morning chores, some of the students will collect a pinch of wool, a feather or two from the rooster, pheasants or quail, and a puff of rabbit fur from a nest box. The students will take these treasures and learn to tie flies or make really lovely earrings. Flies tied here can then be used to learn to fly-cast.
Traditional Techniques of Tanning Hides and Skins
Tanning hides and skins is a major activity each year and popular with kids and adults.
We teach traditional tanning techniques used by Native Americans for thousands of years to make buckskins. The process is completely natural and non-toxic, and the resulting buckskin is soft, washable, strong, and durable.
For a more complete photo series on brain-tanning, click here.
Leather and Rawhide
Working with leather is pleasant and satisfying. At Devil’s Gulch, campers make lanyards, clothing and other objects from leather, some of which is tanned here at camp.
Unlike tanned leather, rawhide is stiff and will hold the shape into which it is formed when wet. At camp, applications include making hard containers and crafting drumheads. The drums are made by the campers in a traditional process by which a log is hollowed out with fire.
Blacksmithing
See Farm Shop.
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Rocks
The streambed at our favorite spot on the creek provides pretty stones that can be shaped and polished and used for jewelry, tools, or games throughout the summer.
Papermaking
Paper made at camp uses recycled paper from the office, flowers and plants from our gardens, and leaves and other flat objects students may collect on the property.