Chiaki O’Brien is a SAORI Leaders Committee Certificate recipient. She began SAORI Weaving in 1996 in Japan. She worked as an instructor for the SAORI head office/school in Japan before moving to Minnesota in 2004. She’s been teaching a variety of ages and abilities at schools (including special education classes), at facilities for people with…

“My family grew up loving the outdoors, and we always took an interest in what it was we were seeing out there,” says Setterholm on his start in geology. He worked for the Minnesota Geological Survey for 40 years before retiring. “Geology is everywhere,” he says. “It’s the study of the earth, and we all…

Dawn Pivec is the owner and acupuncturist at Loon Holistic Health (loonholistichealth.com) in Scandia, MN. She has supported thousands of people in their healing journeys  since 2013. This session will help you to understand new possibilities for your healthcare.  

I took early retirement from 9-5 jobs to pursue my creative interests: pottery, photography and more recently, botanical printing and natural dyes. My art studio is a converted ice fishing house on wheels I moved into my backyard in Minneapolis, to be close to my garden plants for natural dyes and botanical printing. Along with…

Emily Anderson leads workshops that help students create fresher and more intuitive paintings. A life-long artist, Emily recently picked up the paints again and has begun the joyful journey of creating playful and layered landscapes. Students will come away from the class feeling excited to know that often, the paintings that took the shortest amount…

Emma Crutcher has always been fascinated by trash and is thrilled to make it her life’s work! Emma is a maker based in South Minneapolis working with waste plastic to create functional and beautiful items. She is the founder of Cool Trash, started in 2022 as an official label for her creative exploits. Cool Trash…

Fred Livesay is a crafts instructor and restoration carpenter residing in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a founding instructor of North House Folk School.  He teaches various crafts at folk schools, art centers, museums, and gatherings in the five-state area, and is a frequent guest instructor at Spoonfest, Edale, England. Primarily a woodworker, he is…

Gabriella lives on her family’s small farm in Stillwater and has grown seeds for their massive garden for over ten years. Keeping our land and waterways clean is a passion that has led her to stuff journals full of trash and treasures gathered from riverbanks, ditches, and rescued from the bin at her retail job.…

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.

Greig Tennis started his lifelong musical journey as a percussionist and, by the time he was in high school, was giving drum lessons to up to 20 students per week. Later, he became the Drum Sergeant of the Macalester College Bagpipe Band and gave lessons to college students in the distinctive style of Scottish bagpipe…

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…

A long time resident of Marine on St. Croix, Janet has a fine arts degree and professionally works as a teacher with at-risk and Special Education students. She is never far from wool, creating fiber garments and accessories using knitting, crocheting, naalbinding and other fiber arts techniques.