Just a fraction of our craft workshops….
This year at Medicine Festival we are honoured to have the talented and wise Dorrie Joy bringing her gift of craft and creation for all to enjoy at the House of Deer, along with many other amazing craftspeople offering their skills in our new Soil to Soul area arriving at this years gathering.
Please bare in mind, these craft workshops are the only paid workshops on site, as there are considerable costs involved in materials and preparation. There are many free craft workshops happening on-site that aren’t available for pre booking, including natural dying, yurt making, green woodworking, leatherworking, willow weaving and much more!
The Harmony of Earth and Venus with Daniel Docherty and Vija Docherty
￡45, 16 places, Friday 18th August 10:00am – 1:00pm
The patterns danced out in the heavens by Earth and Venus are extraordinary and nothing short of mind-blowing.
Unfortunately, like so many wonders that cannot but instil a deep sense of beauty, reverence and harmony within our souls, they remain generally absent from our educational curriculums.
Despite this, more and more people are re-awaking to the mysteries and magnificence of the heavenly patterns and their earthly correspondences.
During this 2 to 3 hour workshop, through exploring, drawing, gilding and painting the Venus Rose, we will seek to deepen our understanding of this exquisite pattern which is danced out in space around us every eight years (course participants wishing to ensoul their Venus Mandala with copper-leaf gilding and copper-rich mineral paints such as malachite and azurite will be welcome to do so during the final hour of the workshop).
The dates of Medicine festival 2023 are especially auspicious for such an exploration as they correspond to Venus’s closest approach to earth as she passes between us and the sun while transitioning from evening to bright morning star.
Book Harmony of Earth and Venus Workshop
Medicine Bag – Ayacucho Embroidery with Dorrie Joy
￡50, 20 places, Sunday 20th August 10:30am – 1:30pm
Making a boiled wool medicine bag, using bright yarns to embroider a flower in the traditional Ayacucho style, learning 4 embroidery stitches, accompanied by colourful joy & Peruvian songs of thanks & sweetness.
Book Medicine Bag – Ayacucho Embroidery
Medicine Pouch – Harvesting our Medicine with Dorrie Joy
￡50, 30 places, Sunday 20th August 2:30am – 4:30pm
Making a medicine pouch from soft deerskin, filled with songs & stories, sweet blessings & freshly prepared cedar. This workshop includes guidance on identifying, gathering, preparing and using western red cedar & other herbs for medicinal and ceremonial purposes, and why it’s important to harvest our own medicines from our local environment, in beauty, as a path of reciprocity, respect, responsibility & sustainability. We’ll be making herbal oils to take home and drinking wild gathered medicinal tea.
Book Medicine Pouch – Harvesting our Medicine
Medicine Shields Workshop with Dorrie Joy
￡100, 10 places, Saturday 19th August 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Ceremonially crafted 14” Medicine Shields, a rawhide circle strung up in a buckskin wrapped frame, hung with herbs, feathers & totems as an decorative altar of personal medicine. Can be painted with ochre or left blank.
Book Medicine Shields Workshop
Roadkill Handling & Life Honouring with Dorrie Joy
￡20, 30 places, Sunday 20th August 5pm – 6:30pm
A unique, inspiring, grounded & richly informative workshop that covers handling roadkill in a sacred, practical, safe and hygienic way. Includes contemporary tips within the context of indigenous teachings & ancient methods for good relations with earth, animal & spirit
Book Roadkill Handling and Life Honouring
Oak and Smoke Tannery – Deer Antler Craft, Leather Tanning, and Rattle Making
with Jessie Watson Brown
£15 – £40, Every Day
Jessie is a hide tanner and ancestral crafter. Exploring ancestral skills and life honouring practices through relating to the death of our kin. Making beauty from that which is otherwise wasted. She lives in Dartmoor, Devon, where she runs a small tannery and teaches workshops.
Most of her work involves skin, bone, fur, hoof and antler. All ethically and responsibly sourced and naturally processed.
PLEASE BOOK ON SITE
Spoon Making Workshops with Alan Mitchel
£15, 8 Places, Every Day
Learn to carve a spoon from scratch for complete beginners using professional wood carving knives with safe and efficient carving techniques. Taught by Alan who has been running these sessions safely for over six years and also reaches at spoonfest.
PLEASE BOOK ON SITE
Silver Jewellery Workshops in Sand Casting with Isii Bulloch
£95, 8 Places, Every Day
Come and make your own piece of Jewellery in Sterling Silver and learn the art of Sand Casting. Forage a little piece of Mother Nature like acorns, twigs and leaves, and bring them along to the workshop because we are going to turn these little foraged treasures into your own unique piece of jewellery, a memento of Medicine Festival and a treasured piece of Mother Nature.
PLEASE BOOK ON SITE
Golden Lotus Archery and Traditional Bow Making
£35, 15 Places, Every Day
Craft a Longbow, or Mongolian style Horse bow. This is an opportunity to learn and use traditional ancestral skills and techniques to create a most effective and beautiful archery bow. Using the highest quality materials and tools, a lovingly crafted bow can become a living, fully functional work of art. Archery offers a very real remembrance of our ancestral skill and knowledge, passed down and inherited by us in our own living, divine bodily memory. Crafting a bow allows us to access the skills used by our most ingenious ancestors, and to create a timeless tool with which to experience a world wide and ancient practice
PLEASE BOOK ON SITE
Basket Making with Suz Williams
£15, 5Places, Every Day
Join Suz Williams to make your very own hazel bark basket. With only a handful of makers left in the country, split hazel basketry is currently on the endangered traditional craft list. Each weaver is cracked off a hazel stick and processed with a knife making a smooth and flexible material that can last for decades. As well as hazel we will use a selection of other natural materials to weave with. Come and learn more at this incredible workshop!
PLEASE BOOK ON SITE
Medicine Rattle Making Workshop with Dorrie Joy (SOLD OUT)
￡70, 15 places, Friday 18th August 6:15pm – 7:45pm
Sanding, shaping, oiling & creating a personal medicine rattle from a pre-sewn rawhide head filled with river stones. Includes a wide range of sustainably sourced wild furs, feathers, beads & totems to choose from.
Medicine Drum Making Workshop with Dorrie Joy (SOLD OUT)
￡260, 10 places, Friday 18th August 10:30am – 4:30pm
Ceremonially crafted 14” Red Deer Drums made from hand prepared local deerskin & sustainably sourced hand steamed Ash frames. These are strong travelling drums that come with an Antler handle & beater. We’ll be working on floor level & drum making requires full use of both hands. Bring a packed lunch & water bottle. It’s a gorgeous & fulfilling workshop. Spaces are limited & fill quickly.
Medicine Drum Making Workshop with Dorrie Joy (SOLD OUT)
￡260, 10 places, Saturday 19th August 10:30am – 4:30pm
Ceremonially crafted 18” Reindeer Drums made from hand prepared Reindeer skin & sustainably sourced hand steamed Ash frames. These are harmonious dreaming drums that come with a wooden handle & beater. We’ll be working on floor level & drum making requires full use of both hands. Bring a packed lunch & water bottle. It’s a gorgeous & fulfilling workshop. Spaces are limited & fill quickly.