Back by Popular Demand!!
Make a working bow or weave a traditional willow basket in one weekend!

The Riekes Center's Nature Awareness department is offering a special event where older youths and adults can create their own willow basket or wooden bow in the local Santa Cruz mountains.

In the bow making class two seasoned instructors will guide each participant through the process of creating their own self bow. Skills developed through this workshop include basic wood working, tillering, shaping and reaching ideal poundage. They will also cover some bow hunting basics. Participants will need to bring their own set of woodworking tools.

Participants in the basket making class will work with local willow to create a utilitarian-style twined basket. The instructor has been studying basketry for the past eight years and will discuss harvesting techniques and different basket patterns used by Native Californians.

This workshop is at the heart of all that we teach in the Riekes Center Nature Awareness department. It is designed to merge ancient technologies and crafts with modern applications while emphasizing nature awareness and observation. This series takes a look at the four main elements of survival: fire, water, shelter, and food. In this four-part series each weekend is designed to provide both old and new perspectives of survival crafts. We believe that the ingenious technologies of ancient humans can be applied to relieve contemporary environmental stresses. With foundational knowledge of basic survival taught on Saturdays, participants will explore modern applications on Sunday. Each class can be taken independently or combined to yield a powerful bundle of knowledge.