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Register here: https://elyfolkschool.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/elyfolkschool/event.jsp?event=15156&Monday, March 17th - Thursday, March 20th, 2025
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Tuition: $156 Materials: $150
Take home a little piece of Ely out-door culture by sewing your very own pair of beaver-fur musher mittens! Beaver fur is one of the warmest and sturdiest natural materials for making traditional winter accessories. Highlights of the class include:
Walking through every step from start to finish to make your personnel fur gauntlets, including the liner!
Learn to draw your own patterns to fit your hand and forearm.
Work with fur trapped locally in Northern Minnesota.
Gain hands on experience sewing fur, wool, and leather.
While sewing their mittens, students will learn about the history of fur trade in North America and the science and art of working with wild fur. Special attention will be given to how to work with traditional leathers (moose, deer, or reindeer) and furs (fox, beaver, and otter) that are found in both Northern Europe and North America. Students will create a pattern, sew the outer fur mitten, finish the liner, and braid a leather strap to create a unique and personally meaningful pair of musher mittens. The class is a great introduction to sewing and working with natural materials and provides useful applications for future projects!
This project is appropriate for ages 12+ with adult/ages 16+ alone and is open to all skill levels. Please note that to complete this project, students need some hand strength and flexibility, as sewing leather and fur is more difficult than cloth.
A $150 materials fee covers leather and fur for one hat, wool for the liner, leather cutter’s needle, thread, pattern, instructional handout, and other necessary supplies. Students are also encouraged to bring preferred ergonomic sewing tools as sewing leather and fur may be more difficult than sewing cloth.
About your instructor: Kaitlin Ostlie's undergraduate work was in East Asian Studies and Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis on Japan. During their twenties, they briefly lived in Tokyo, Japan, and it was there that they fell in love with mingei, or the crafts of common people. While in Japan, they exposed themself to a variety of folk arts including Shorin-Ryu and Kobudo martial arts, book binding, ceramics, indigo dyeing, woodworking, and leather working techniques. They especially enjoyed learning about the arts associated with Japan’s minority cultures – the Ainu, Ryukyujin and Burakumin – that often do not receive the attention or support they deserve both within Japan and abroad.
After returning to the Minnesota, they decided they wanted to continue exploring folk art in the context of Minnesota’s indigenous and settler populations, including their own cultural background as a Nordic/Sámi American. Since then, they have taken course work whenever time and money has allowed at many regional folk schools and with both local and international teachers. Their own work reflects my diversity in training, often incorporating techniques, styles, and visual motifs from their Scandinavian, Sámi, Japanese, and Native American influences.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
209 East Sheridan Street, Ely, MN, United States, Minnesota 55731
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