Vermont Handworks is a multidisciplinary craft and art education space in Charlotte, Vermont. The rural, intimate workshop, is 15 minutes outside of Burlington on the remnants of an old dairy farm, which is being repurposed to cultivate basketry willow.
Despite a typically unquestioned pursuit of convenience, handmade, a term conjuring up images of slow, methodical work, is universally understood as valuable. A society drenched in digital technology can leave little room for tactile creative experiences. Vermont Handworks offers year-round workshops in metalworking, woodworking, enameling, and basketry. Our mission is to provide a welcoming and relaxed learning environment to empower people of all experience levels to realize their creative goals.
GREEN WOODWORKING AND BASKETRY
Our green woodworking and basketry classes range anywhere from a few hours in a single day, to muti-week full-time intensives. Classes include spoon carving, ladderback and Windsor chairmaking, pitchfork making, fanbird carving, willow and black ash basketry. Beginners are welcome in any class, and all tools are provided.
Green woodworking projects often start by splitting parts from a freshly felled log, and doing some or all of the work before the material looses its moisture, taking advantage of the properties of wet or “green” material. It’s a way of woodworking which emphasizes selecting material for its physical properties, instead of its appearance, which allows for the efficient use of simple tools and processes like shaping with the drawknife and bending with steam. For these reasons, green woodworking has much more in common with basketry traditions like willow, black ash, and white oak, than with other types of woodworking.
METAL WORKING AND ENAMELING
Enameling is the process of applying powdered glass to a metal surface and fusing the two materials together using high temperatures to create a durable, colorful, and glossy finish. Vermont Handworks offers beginning, intermediate and advanced classes in traditional enameling processes such as Cloisonne, Plique-a-jour, Basse-taille, Sgraffito, and Grisaille. In addition, we offer experimental enameling workshops that feature processes that Jolynn has developed over the past thirteen years for use in her own work.
In addition to enameling, Vermont Handworks offers a variety of skill-building and project-based jewelry workshops including rings, pendants, bangles, bracelets, and earrings for all levels. The classes explore a variety of jewelry making techniques such as stone setting; the process of using metal to secure a gemstone in a piece of jewelry; soldering a process where two or more metal pieces are permanently joined together using heat; sawing and piercing a process that involves accurately cutting metal into specific shapes or cutting intricate internal designs and; metal forming the process of shaping metals into desired forms using hammers and anvils.
Vermont Handworks is a collaboration between Jolynn Santiago and Eric Cannizzaro. They bring a diverse set of skills and teaching experiences to their shared vision. They strive is to serve the needs of their community with a mix of project oriented classes and in-depth skill building workshops.