Name: Bentwood Box
Start: 2025-04-19T09:00:00-08:00
Location: 2300 Airport Way, Cabin 66, Fairbanks, AK, United States, Alaska 99701

In this class students will build a bentwood box of a design inspired by the Yupik people of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta, but also borrowing from Estonian and Scandinavian traditions. The Y-K Delta is basically treeless and the beautiful traditional boxes built by the Yupik people were constructed from driftwood supplied by the rivers and the sea. We will be taking a much simpler path using carefully selected white spruce from the interior.
Bentwood Box ClassThese are sturdy, functional, and beautiful containers that will serve many purposes for years to come and will introduce students to a variety of traditional woodworking and carving skills and techniques.
We will steam-bend the sides into a pleasing shape and stitch the ends together with spruce root. The bottoms will be hollowed on the inside and rabbeted to fit the sides, leaving a lip around the base and then attached with wooden nails. The tops will be similarly rabbeted and hollowed as well as contoured on the outside surface. We will create handles from that wonderfully curvy wood that wraps itself around loose knots (those that produce knot holes). The handles will be sewn on with spruce root.
In this class students will be exposed to bending wood, shaping wood with gouges or crooked knives, creating rabbets with handsaws and chisels, some straight knife carving, splitting and dimensioning spruce root, and some designs and techniques for stitching. Most of these procedures require hand and even arm strength. This class welcomes beginning and advanced students, and modifications can be made for an individual’s skill and pace.
Cost: $475
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Only place to register for this class is on our website (link in the tickets section of this description) or by calling The Folk School's office. We will never ask you to pay class tuition/mandatory fees via Facebook or Venmo.