Instructors

When Libby Pomroy joined a folk-art class at her daughters’ Korean Saturday school, she was quickly hooked on hanji, Korea’s unique, strong-fibered paper that lends itself beautifully to intricate paper cutting. She shared the craft with friend Kat Wesley, who found it irresistible. Together, they created the Hanji Crew, a small business that teaches hanji…

Leslie Granbeck is a feltmaker and instructor born and raised in Minneapolis. Since 2007, Leslie has been sharing her knowledge of fibers and their magical transformation into felt. She teaches traditional wet felting, nuno felting, and her favorite – sculptural seamless felting. Her classes are full of color, creativity and adventure. They also include a…

Judy Sell has been creating dishes and vintage jewelry for over 25 years. She has been on HGTV: Crafters Coast-to-Coast and has been a Minnesota State Fair, Fine Arts, Blue Ribbon winner. She teaches mosaic art and our vintage jewelry tree classes.

Wayne Manthey is a nationally known drum maker and teacher of drum making.  His approach is spiritual, honoring the animals who provided the hides and the trees who donated the wood. “As I started making drums, I was especially interested in the vibration of rawhide and the sound it makes.  Once I was able to…

Originally from North Dakota, Greg worked as a prison therapist while pursuing art, carving and sculpture using a variety of different materials including ice (first place co-winner in the 1998 Winter Carnival Ice Sculpture-Amateur Contest!), silver, antler, wood, leather and scrimshaw.  Now a full-time artist, Greg makes sculptures by inviting nature to steel.

Minnesota is the home of many outstanding artists of the Somali diaspora. MMFS is pleased to be welcoming Ardho Ismail, Hawa Aden, Halwa Daud, and Amina Shire to teach Finger Weaving! The Somali Museum’s mission is to celebrate and promote Somali culture and art, and they accomplish this mission in part by supporting the new…

Carl Wegener is a photographer from the St. Croix River Valley. He has taught photography to children for 4-H and the Wilder Foundation. His passion is empowering children with photographic knowledge so they can see the world through a different lens which will last a lifetime.

Stephanie Thurow is a Certified Master Food Preservationist, with special interest in water bath canning and vegetable fermentation. She is a Minnesota native and the cookbook author of Can It & Ferment It (2017), WECK Small-Batch Preserving (2018) and WECK Home Preserving (fall 2020). Stephanie enjoys being in nature, organic gardening, spending time with family,…

With an eclectic professional background in journalism, education, and art, Candace fell in love with shoemaking several years ago and has been making them and other leather accessories since. After apprenticing with shoemakers around the country, she opened her shop, Hemlocks Leatherworks, in the Lincoln Park Craft District in Duluth, Minnesota. She currently teaches and…

At age four Patti would stand on a stool in the kitchen “helping” her mother to bake cookies and prepare mid century standards like Rice A Roni and tuna noodle hot dish. But even in the Midwest of the 1960s, she knew there were other ways to eat. Through her father, raised in an Orthodox…

Now retired, Larry Underkoffler taught Junior High Art for 25 years. He is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Viet Nam, Air Traffic Controller, Camping Director for 8 years, an illustrator of children’s books and has served as the Superintendent of Art for the Washington County Fair for the past 13 years. He graduated…

Lizabeth Towers is an experienced knitting teacher who has earned the two teaching certificates available from the Craft Yarn Council of America. A friend to every knitter, she enjoys making tough techniques accessible to average knitters, teaching rank beginners the joy of knitting, and best of all, learning from her students. She is found on ravelry.com as…

Liz Schreiber is a 15 year veteran of the State Fair and has won multiple ribbons over the years. When not winning ribbons, she has worked as an illustrator for multiple publications using crop art as her medium including VitaMN, The Growler, and Edible Twin Cities.  Liz has taught workshops on Crop Art at the…

Lisa Peterson doesn’t remember a time when she hasn’t been making something. She is a spinner, knitter, quilter and weaver, creating rugs on an antique floor loom as well as doing free form weaving. She repairs and maintains old looms with her daughter, in addition to teaching weaving classes to all age groups and ability…

Kevin Nyenhuis is an avid paddler and woodworker. Enchanted by the upper St Croix as a canoe instructor 30 some years ago, he has raised his family in Marine, and on the waters of the region. Kevin teaches our build-your-own-paddle classes and is also the mayor of Marine on St. Croix.

Heather Mashuga recognized her passion for plants and herbalism in her first herbalism class, proceeding to earn her master’s degree in Holistic Health Studies, with a concentration in herbalism, from St. Catherine’s University.  She practices traditional Western herbalism and has been a practitioner and teacher for 4 years.  Heather incorporates knowledge and traditions of herbal…

John Hanson is an artist, woodworker and soap maker from Minneapolis. He has been teaching soap making for over four years, with many of his classes resulting in wait lists. He sells his soap products in over twenty local stores including at his first customer, the Seward Co-op.

Randy Gildersleeve has decades of experience playing, teaching, and recording music in many genres. He currently performs with North Shore Trail (bluegrass/acoustic), Saints of Swing (big band jazz), St. Croix Crossings (classic rock), and the Hosanna Lutheran Forest Lake worship band. As a teacher, Randy gives private lessons in guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, and…

A local artist from Grant, Karen Engelbretson has been making needle felted birds since 2008.  She regularly teaches needle felting at St. Croix valley locations. Karen is a semi-retired graphic designer currently working with organizations to communicate the need to improve water quality and restore wildlife habitats.

Brian Keogh was first exposed to woodcarving from his dad, Bob Keogh. Funny thing was, Brian had no interest in carving when his dad was alive, but for the past 10 years he has been carving spoons from green birch. Brian enjoys cycling in the summer and nordic skiing and saunas in the winter.  He and…