September Sampler 2025
September Sampler offers a sample of all the Alabama Folk School has to offer. During this one-day event, crafters and true beginners alike can find something to love. Students sign up for one of several class options and will enjoy an included lunch with live music. Tuition also includes the majority of supplies needed. We’re excited to welcome back Sarah Ward with Heirloom Pie Making as well as Cameron Strouss teaching her popular tea blending class.
Registration Opens June 2025
Cost for Workshop & Lunch Per Person: $100-$150
Visible Mending with Aaron Sanders Head
In this workshop, participants will explore hand-stitching techniques to be used for patching, mending and reinforcing beloved worn clothing. Techniques can be used for both inconspicuous mends, as well as bold visible mending. This workshop will focus on woven fabrics, like linen, cotton and denim, and not knit or stretch fabrics. Mending your clothing is not only a way to be more sustainable in your daily life, but it also offers the opportunity for a beautifully utilitarian mode of self-expression, and a chance to operate outside of the confines of commercial fast fashion. The skills learned in this workshop can be used in infinite ways, transforming the participants' clothing into beloved, heirloom garments that reflect the wearer. Participants will need to select 1-2 garments that need some love, with the space needing repair measuring no more than about 4 x 4 inches. The knees or back pockets of denim, button plackets, or the worn elbows of a shirt are perfect for this. If your space needing mending is on the larger size, simply e-mail a photo to Aaron before the workshop to talk it out and see what might be possible. Aaron will provide naturally dyed and vintage fabric scraps for patching, along with necessary marking tools, threads and mending notions. Participants are highly encouraged to bring fabrics and threads that are special to them to utilize in their mending as well. Participants will leave with several stitched swatches as well as several repairs in various states of completion.
Materials provided by instructor:
- Naturally dyed and vintage fabrics for patching
- Naturally dyed and undyed thread
- All mending notions
- Other materials like rotary cutters, cutting mats, marking pens and more will be available for everyone to use.
Materials provided by students:
- If you have a hand-sewing materials you enjoy using (specific needles, scissors, thimbles, threaders, etc), please feel free to bring those in addition to what is provided by Aaron
- If there are special fabrics from home, or beloved fabric scraps, please bring those as well.
Aaron Sanders Head is a Southern, Alabama-based textile artist. Aaron was raised in rural Grady, AL and Hope Hull, AL, as the youngest of three children from an artist mother and an agricultural worker father. His grandparents were both rural mail carriers, and the times Aaron spent accompanying them on those trips cemented early on a fondness for rural areas and the importance of connection however it can be found. That learned sense of observation combined with inherited family traditions of textile and agriculture inform the unique visual language Aaron works in today, that exists in the worlds of quiltmaking, handwork and natural dyes. Aaron creates quilts and hand-stitched, naturally dyed textiles that explore the lived experiences of rural Alabamians.
Tea Blending with Cameron Strouss
This hands on class will relax, inspire, and expand your tea game!
We will delight your senses and your mind by immersing you into the world of tea. You will learn my three part tea blending hack to create lovely teas constantly. You will also learn how to blend teas to support your health, constitution, time of year, and flavor preferences.
In The Art & Science of Tea Blending Class you will learn:
- A brief history of tea and tisanes
- The difference between a tea and a tisane
- How to properly brew a cup of tea
- The difference between a hot and cold infusion and a decoction and when you would choose to use each therapeutically
- What constituents extract best in water
- How to create the most therapeutic tea blend
- How to choose top, middle and base notes for your tea
- Learn what your constitution is and what type of tea would best support you.
Cameron Strouss is the owner and founder of The Deep Roots School of Herbal Medicine (formerly Deep Roots Apotheké & Clinic) and has been a professional in the field of herbal medicine for 15 years. She has 9 years of experience in Clinical Practice and has over 4,000 hours of training in the Sciences and Herbal Medicine. Cameron is a graduate of the University of Montevallo with a Biology Degree and Environmental Studies Minor with Honors, the Southeastern Institute for Traditional Herbal Studies ( Darryl Patton, 2008-2011) and The Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine (Thomas Easley, RH(AHG), 2012-2013) with her Clinical Herbal Certification. In 2018 she was awarded the professional distinction of Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild (denoted RH, (AHG)) and Functional Herbalist from the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine.
Blacksmithing Forged Spoons with Quinn McKay
In this class, students will have free range of the shop to make one or more forged spoons however they wish! We will have an hour of tool and technique demonstrations followed by a brief design session. The rest of the time is for the students to explore spoon making ranging from fully functional to purely artistic.
Quinn McKay’s creative energies are rooted in a love of Architecture from an early age, blended with a deep connection to nature. Elements of his designs are inspired by the natural forms around and apart of us as well as the clean lines which we surround ourselves with. Throughout much of his work, the use of nature’s proportions are present. Attending the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, SC solidified Quinn’s love of forging metal. He celebrates the material in his practice by preserving the natural displacement when forged, leaving the evidence of each manipulation of the material. Acting with this sense of preservation is his homage to the tradition of forging. Through his time spent at ACBA, Quinn explored many different styles within his ironwork taking the most influence from Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement. Quinn has experience working in multiple metal shops, most recently Iron Horse Metalworks in Birmingham, AL.
Heirloom Pies with Sarah Ward
This fully immersive class is perfect for beginner or intermediate home bakers. In this class we'll cover multiple methods for making crust, homemade fruit fillings, a savory filling, forming and baking hand pies, blind baking, forming, and baking pies in a tin.
Sarah Ward is an accomplished baker and recipe developer based in Birmingham, Alabama. In recent years she worked as a freelancer, recipe developer for Southern Cast Iron magazine, and editor of Taste of The South magazine. Sarah is the food editor for Preppy Kitchen. You can find her personal recipes and cooking wisdom on ofthedirt.com.
Intro to Ceramics with Kelly Towe
This beginner-friendly class introduces the fundamentals of hand-building and wheel throwing with clay. You'll learn essential techniques like pinch pots, coil building, and basic wheel throwing to create functional and decorative pieces.
Kelly Towe is a relationship and grief therapist based in Chattanooga, TN and has been using clay as a creative outlet and stress relief for the past two years. In working through her own self-care process, Kelly enrolled in pottery classes at her home studio, Scenic City Clay Arts. After discovering the therapeutic benefits of working with clay, she found it to be an excellent way to unwind, connect with the gift of play and imperfection, and generally, get her hands dirty. This art/hobby/interest is perfect for those that desire a counter avocation from highly relational or stressful day-to-days. For the last year and a half, Kelly has been attending events at the Folk School and she is excited to facilitate steps in joyful creativity and play for those that attend this class.