Teaching in New Zealand with Rekindle
You can also catch Alex at various carving festivals around the world!
Upcoming Classes
-2024-
Shrink Pots at Marine Mills Folk School January 27-28
Kuksa Carving at The Milan Village Arts School, Milan Minnesota February 2-4
Chip Carving and Decorative Work at Marine Mills Folk School February 24-25
Kuksa Carving at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota March 16-18 Sold Out
Hewn Bowl Carving at The Milan Village Arts School, Milan Minnesota April 5-7
Kuksa Carving at Marine Mills Folk School April 20-21
Kuksa Carving at The Vesterheim Norwegian Folk Art Museum, Decorah Iowa April 26-28
Kuksa Carving and Live Demonstrations at the Wooden Boat Show - North House Folk School June 17-19 (Class) Demos 21-22
[To be announced] at Milan Village Arts School, Milan Minnesota June 1-3
The 18th Spoon Gathering - Teaching, Live Demonstration and Story Telling June 4-6
Advanced Kuksa Carving at The Vesterheim Norwegian Folk Art Museum, Decorah Iowa - October 11-13
-2023-
Spoon Carving at Milan Village Arts School, Milan Minnesota June 1-3 Sold Out
The 17th Spoon Gathering - Teaching, Live Demonstration and Story Telling June 4-6
Kuksa Carving August 5-6 at Marine Mills Folk School in Marine on St. Croix! Minnesota Sold Out
Kuksa Carving September 23-24 at Marine Mills Folk School in Marine on St. Croix! Minnesota Sold Out
Shrink Pots, Wooden Canisters, and other small boxes! October 21-22 at Marine Mills Folk School in Marine on St. Croix! Minnesota Sold Out
Spoon Carving with Fred Livesay and Kjetil Groven at KJ’s forge October 27-29 in The Black Hills - Sturgis, South Dakota Sold Out
Kitchen Sloyd! Carving Utensil Lab - November 4-5 at Marine Mills Folk School in Marine on St. Croix! Minnesota Sold Out
Kuksa Carving Workshop - December 9-10 at Marine Mills Folk School
More upcoming classes are in the works! Shrink pots, spoons, tool sharpening and more!
-2020-
Vesterheim
Kuksa Carving September 15-17 at The Vesterheim in Decorah Iowa
North House Folk School
Wood Week and Kuksa Carving 7-9 - SOLD OUT
Milan Spoon Gathering 2020 - Kuksa Carving June 2-4 Two Spots Left! Book Here
Vesterheim Norwegian Folk Art Museum
Beginner Kuksa Carving March 12-14 - Book Here
Advanced Kuksa Carving March 16-18 - Book Here This is going to be a great class. If you’ve taken my normal kuksa course, this is the one for you. We’ll be stepping up our game with design theory, advanced tool technique, thinking outside the box and changing the way we think about the fundamentals we’ve learned in other courses.
Advanced Spoon Carving with Fred Livesay March 26-29 - Book Here
This is going to be a great class! I’m co-teaching with one of the world’s best spoon carvers. We’ll be utilizing the old folk craft museum archives to inspire what we carve as a class.
-2019-
Next year is already being booked up fast! So keep your eyes peeled as I’ll be updating this page regularly. If you’re interested in having me come teach at your place, please contact me as I’m always game to travel to new places, and spread the sloyd cheer.
The demand for my coursework is growing and 2020 is already getting some dates on the calendar!
To Be Announced - East Coast USA
New York and Maine
Right now it’s in the planning stages. If you’re interested in taking a course, please message me with your information and I’ll put you on the list!
Spoon Jam! October 24-27 - Australia
Kuksa Carving Course Spoon Jam Prefest is SOLD OUT!
There will also be small workshops throughout the festival
I will be teaching additional classes after the fest. Shoot me a message.
The Great Spoon Hoolie - Scotland
May 24-26th I’ll be at the festival demonstrating my craft as well as teaching various mini courses. There will be some exciting prefest courses too. I’ll be bringing Nic Westermann and Hewn and Hone with me! We’ll be spending two days teaching you to create a minimum of two new, scary sharp carving knives from raw materials. Forged and ground the Hewn and Hone way. Don’t miss this one!
Tickets here
The Vesterheim - Iowa
April 9-11 Kuksa Carving, and a special Course I’ll be teaching with Fred Livesay!
Kuksa Carving Tickets Here
Only two or three spots left!
Wales
A course at Nic Westermann’s forge is in the works. I’ll be teaching a kuksa carving course, as well as a separate forging course.
Milan Spoon Gathering 2019 Minnesota
This year is going to be a big one! I’ll be teaching kuksa carving, as well as a long demonstration and dialogue while I carve a cup.
We’re also bringing my good friend Adam Hawker over from the UK for some courses and demonstration. Fred Livesay, Del Stubbs, and the usual gang will be there as well.
First week of June 6, 7 8th
Register here
North House Folk School
March 9-11 This class was the first to sell out from their entire catalogue. It’s a really popular class. If you’re from the midwest area, missed the boat would love to carve kuksas with me, please contact me through my site. I have a couple other places in the area where I can setup another kuksa course. This would be in the Twin Cities area. I take ten students max, so if we can fill up a course, I’ll make it happen!
New Zealand
Three Special Carving Courses at Rekindle. Head to their site for more information.
West Coast USA
I am in the works for setting up courses on the west coast in California. More information will be posted here as soon as I hammer out all of the details.
Sweden
There are talks of traveling and teaching in Sweden in 2019-2020. Right now it’s in the planning stages. If you’re interested in taking a course, please message me with your information and I’ll put you on the list!
The Vesterheim - Iowa - February 26-28 There are seats left! &
March 2-4 (SOLD OUT)
I'll be teaching at an amazing Vesterheim museum in Decorah, Iowa with a doubled up class focused on kuksa carving. It's going to be an exciting time as this school is the hub of Scandinavian crafts and features some of the best instructors in the world. I'll be there the same week teaching along side Jögge Sundqvist. Not to be missed!
Milan Spoon Gathering, Minnesota
Come join me and many other amazing crafters at the world’s first spoon carving festival. I’ll be teaching and demonstrating first week of June.
-2018-
Spoon Jam - Pembula Australia
Kuksa Carving Course November 1st and 2nd SOLD OUT!
There will be small workshops throughout the festival like -Mini Kuksas, Decorative Chip Carving, Tool Sharpening and Maintenance with Hewn and Hone
Necessary Traditions Festival - Christchurch New Zealand
I’m hosting and a special international guest teaching two three day workshops which are no sold out! Kuksa Carving, and Spoon Carving.
I’ll also be on the National Radio which you can listen to here. and giving a special talk to over 250 people for a Pecha Kucha here
North House Folk School - March 10-12 (Sold Out)
I'll be teaching a three day kuksa carving course at Noho during Wood Week which is a fantastic event focused solely on wood culture. Some of my favorite instructors and colleagues will be there as well. It's not to be missed!
SOLD OUT! But there is a waiting list
Sign up here!
Spoonfest! Edale, UK
Come join us crazy spooners in the Peak District. I’ll be teaching various courses, and also demonstrating my unique process of how I carve my kuksas. Hope to see you there!
- 2017 -
Milan Spoon Gathering - June 6-8
I will be teaching and demonstrating at the world's first spoon gathering in Milan, Minnesota. After the course there will be a three day full on spoon carving festival you won't want to miss!
You can sign up for a 2.5 day prefest kuksa carving course - Sold out.
North House Folk School - June 24-26
On the shores of the mighty Lake Superior, I'll be teaching a three day kuksa carving course at the prestigious North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. You can book a spot Sold Out
American Swedish Institute - "Spoons and Other Kitchenalia" June 13-15
During this three day class, students will dive into the art of green woodcarving and learn the secrets behind carving and designing functional woodenware to use around the home and kitchen. From spoons, spatulas, and spreaders, you will go home with new utensils for the kitchen and dinner table.
You can sign up for this 3 day carving workshop
- 2016 -
Oct 7th - 9th
Waterford Fair, Virginia - Live Kuksa Carving, Spoon Carving, with the AXE
— SOLD OUT
Spoonfest! Edale, UK - August
Come join us crazy spooners in the Peak District. I’ll be teaching various courses, and also demonstrating my unique process of how I carve my kuksas. Hope to see you there!
June
Spoon Gathering, Milan, Minnesota - Kuksa Carving, Axe Carving Courses
— SOLD OUT
Feb 28th - Mar 2nd
Wood Week, North House Folk School, Grand Marais MN - Kuksa Carving. There will be an optional extra day.
— SOLD OUT
New Workshop Dates
I'm always running new classes and workshops so don't forget to check back here for new dates being added.
Or sign up to hear first of new dates -
Bespoke Classes
If you have an interest in small group or one-on-one workshops for you, friends and colleagues, send me an email here
Want to Host a Workshop?
Drop me a mail to discuss plans.
Axe Carving
All of my carving methods rely upon the utilization of the carving axe.
My workshops will be focused on getting you comfortable with three main carving tools. Axe, knife, and hook tool. With those simple traditional tools, you will be able to create beautiful carvings such as Kuksas, Spoons, and Bowls. Learning my process will also teach you do ditch the sandpaper powertools which limit creativity and hand technique.
Kuksa Carving
Kuksas - Guksi - Kasa - Wooden Cup
This workshop is a bit more advanced. Carving these cups uses the techniques and process we do carving spoons, but some bowl carving technique as well.
We'll be using axes, large bent gouges, adzes, saws, hook tools, and sloyd knife to complete.
