Traditional Skills Experience is about slowing down and learning Intricate crafts, sharing knowledge and stories, keeping alive specialised skills that give you a greater connection and understanding of our natural world. This is a bespoke experience for individuals or groups. I tailor this experience to the individual's or group’s interests, with the chance for clients to learn a wide range of skills and crafts, going into detail and really spending time learning a new skill. This experience varies from 1 day to 1 week. Cost and experience content vary according to the individual and group interests and seasonal changes.

Below is a list of some of the skills you will learn during the traditional skills experience. If you are interested in learning one particular skill set, then we can focus on that. Equally, during the experience, we will touch on different skills to give you a greater understanding of how much there is to learn about the environment, and I will hopefully be seeing you again for further learning and immersion in more skills.

Skills that you will be learning.

Foraging

Learning how to identify plants, trees and fungi that have culinary, medicinal and practical uses. You will learn different ways of preparing wild food and experience the importance of these living organisms.

Fire Craft
Learn different methods of fire lighting and fire craft, from friction to percussion. You will go on a journey into the past learning the importance of fire and the magic of tinders.

Fire Cooking

Learn how to cook in the forest using natural ovens, steamers, smokers, curing meat using natural methods, and how different woods impact flavour and heat for cooking the perfect meal.

Shelter Building

Build your own one-person or group shelter, and learn how to waterproof and insulate a shelter using the natural materials around you. Experience sleeping out in your shelter, learn the art of thatching your own bedding for a comfortable night in the forest. Wherever you go in the world, different cultures have their own unique way of curating shelter. Whether it’s a skill of the past or something still used in the present day, the construction methods of building a natural shelter are a reflection of the detailed knowledge that humans have had and still have in some places of the natural world.

Skinning and Butchering

Learn how to properly prepare wild game and butcher the meat into specific cuts for roasting, mincing and making different cures such as haggis, black pudding, salamis, smoked jerky and biltong. There are many method's of butchery and each country has its own tradition of meat preservation. On this experience you’ll get to learn some of my favourites.

Tanning

Tan your own deer hide, sheep hide or fish skin. This process involves old techniques of turning a raw hide into high quality leather. This skill couldn’t be more sustainable - taking a waste product and making it into something you can wear or hold. For tanning you will be using tree bark or animal fat to preserve the hide and turn it into soft but strong leather.

Basketry and Bark Containers

Learn how to use natural materials for basketry. Use different barks to make containers for foraging or storing and transporting food.

Sweat lodge
Dive into the history of a sweat lodge. You will make your own forest sweat lodge out of natural material, and enjoy the benefits of detoxifying your body using an ancient method of heating specific rocks and splashing them with water inside your dome construction.

Carving

Learn about trees in a hands-on way, understanding grain, concentric rings, sapwood, heartwood and the different qualities of each tree species. Carve your own spoons, bowls, mugs, salt containers and other useful items using hand tools such as axes, carving knives and crook knives.

Duration: 1 full day to 1 week
Dates:  Courses run all year round

Please contact me if you have a specific craft you'd like to learn that isn’t on the above list.