Join us for a weekend of arts!!
Food and Lodging is included in the price!
Hearth & Holler
Join us for a weekend of arts! Spend three days at Pine Mountain Settlement School learning traditional and contemporary Appalachian crafts from working artists, surrounded by the fall colors of the holler.
The Workshops
Photography
About the Workshop
This workshop concentrates on the art and power of photography. It assumes you already know the basics of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
Requirements
- A working understanding of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
- An adjustable camera — mirrorless or DSLR with interchangeable lenses
Questions about whether this workshop is right for you? Feel free to reach out — we're happy to help.
Foraging
About the Instructor
Savanna has had a fascination for nature from a very early age. Growing up in rural Kentucky, Savanna has been a lifelong forager and learned about gardening from her parents and grandparents. Her passion for foraging grew quickly in her late teen years, leading to the start of her online “Foraging Kentucky” social media pages, where she posts educational videos about plants and mushrooms. Savanna also enjoys growing fruit trees, native plants, vegetables, and mushrooms in her gardens.
Workshop Schedule
- 8:00–9:00Breakfast
- 9:00–10:00Mini pancakes with homemade maple syrup — intro and Q&A on making maple syrup at home
- 10:00–12:00Guided hike and forage
- 12:00–1:00Lunch
- 1:00–2:00Fall foraging lecture
- 2:00–4:00Guided hike and forage
- 4:00–5:30Cooking demo: creamy mushroom soup
- 5:30–6:00Lecture: What is a mushroom?
- 6:00–7:00Dinner
- 7:00–8:30Cooking demo: persimmon bread and passion fruit mocktail/cocktail
- 8:00–9:00Breakfast
- 9:00–11:00Guided hike and forage
- 11:00–12:00Lecture: Fungal relationships
- 12:00–1:30Cooking demo: mushroom shawarma
Improv Quilting
About the Instructor
Sam Christian (they/them) is a Richmond, VA native and mixed media fiber artist who is deeply committed to celebrating Black and queer stories, exploring both their light and their shadows. Their artistic practice is an homage to storytelling, influenced by their roots in the American South, the wisdom passed down by their quilting grandmother, and their experience as a parentified firstborn navigating the complexities of the “American Dream.” From fiber arts to writing and performance, Sam’s work interweaves layers of memory, liberation, and community care, always rooted in the preservation and utility of Black art.
Their series Personal Affects represents their effort to challenge what a family’s narrative can be and do, blurring the lines between function and abstraction, tradition and experimentation. Sam redefines a quilt not just as a piece of fabric stitched together, but as a repository of memory and a living artifact. The project invites people to confront their own family’s history — be it intimate, historical, or fantastical; good or bad. These works show up as quilts, assemblages of everyday objects, pieces of writing, and performance art, becoming vessels for collective storytelling.
Workshop Schedule
Introductions and a little quilting history, our first writing prompt — “I am the one who…” — and a quick machine demo to prep for the first full day!
Community conversation: “Improv Quilting: Function and Release.” We’ll start the day discussing and reading a passage about Gee’s Bend that speaks to grief and craft. Then we start our blocks with a demo and a single-color block activity before break. After break, we jump into our main blocks that will carry us into the last day!
Wrap up our blocks and talk through the process of batting, backing, and binding. Finished blocks!
Shaker Tape Stools
About the Instructor
Tristan Bray is the Appalachian Craft and Culture Coordinator at Pine Mountain Settlement School. With a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a minor in Appalachian Studies, she has found her niche in Appalachian craft and culture. Tristan has studied drawing, stained glass, and woodworking with professionals at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and has taught all ages, from elementary students to adults. She currently teaches classes on traditional and new-age Appalachian crafts such as corn shuck crafts, block printing, weaving, and stained glass.
Workshop Schedule
- 9:00–12:00Shop safety, measurements, and shaping legs
- 1:00–6:00Finish shaping, glue-up, and varnish
- 9:00–12:00Weave your stool seat with Shaker tape
Natural Dyes: Mordants & Modifiers
About the Workshop
Demystify the natural dye process by taking a deep dive into how different mordants and modifiers can be used to yield a range of colors from your dye plants. We’ll experiment together by immersion dyeing fabric samples and make keepsake swatchbooks to record the results.
About the Instructor
Jessamine Michler is a textile artist, educator, and curator of sustainable art practices. Her work with plant-dyed textiles explores how growing and harvesting materials for contemporary art and craft not only provides a unique place-based color palette, but also connects us to landscape, agricultural heritage, and community.
Follow along on Instagram: @cultivatingcolors
Workshop Schedule
- 8:00–9:00Breakfast
- 9:00–12:00Intro talk, then mordant fibers and prepare dyebaths
- 12:00–1:00Lunch
- 1:00–5:00Dye sample swatches and explore color-shifting afterbaths
- 6:00–7:00Dinner
- 8:00–9:00Breakfast
- MorningAdd color swatches to our dye journals and discuss final conclusions
All dyebaths are made from plant dyes, including a study with madder root.
Intermediate Blacksmithing
About the Workshop
A two-day intermediate workshop that builds on core blacksmithing technique at the propane forge. Participants should come with some prior forging experience and will refine their skills while working toward one or more finished pieces to take home.
About the Instructor
Jonathan Hansel is a self-taught blacksmith from Big Laurel, Kentucky, who first picked up the craft to make his own tools.