Our classes for women and the female-identified are inclusive, noncompetitive, comprehensive, and they use a feminine approach to the subject matter. You’ll come away from them with real, practical skills and a deeper sense of esteem for yourself as a person and a woman.
Feeling capable is a human birthright. Living with confidence in our ability to care for and do things for ourselves is empowering and satisfying. For too long, women haven’t had opportunities to learn the tools for self-sufficient living. Oftentimes, when we have had the chance to learn, it’s been on male terms and in male-dominated situations. We’re excited to make a change!
Classes for women that put empowerment in our own two hands.
In-person Classes
Women's Basic Carpentry
This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills, working with wood, and using hand tools as well as power tools. Focus is placed on ... creating a safe, comfortable, relaxed and fun learning environment in which students with beginning to intermediate skill levels can thrive. Trans welcome.
Choose a 2024 session:
Oct 23-27(filled) orOct 31 to Nov 3(filled)
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Tiny House Building Workshop
Gain the skills you need to build your own tiny house from local, natural, or conventional materials. Tour beautifully crafted tiny houses and natural buildings, ... learn about each stage of building from expert lectures, experience hands-on learning as we build a tiny house from scratch, plus get lifetime access to extensive online video library
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Foraging and Medicinal Herbs Course
Identify and wild forage medicinal plants in the Appalachian mountains. Learn to make medicine and cultivate herbs in your garden. Make ... and take home herbal salves, tinctures, flower essences, decoctions, cough syrups, herbal liqueurs, oxymels and vinegars.
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Timber Framing Class
Learn how to lay out, measure, cut, fit, assemble, and raise a 16' by 20' timber-framed building through demos and hands-on practice. This class is appropriate ... whether you are an experienced carpenter, backyard deck builder, or excited beginner who just has a knack for craft.
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Women’s Rewilding Retreat
Gather with other women for a long weekend of connection, learning, and rewilding. Basketry, medicine making, cheese and soap ... making, wild foods cookery, friction fire, and more In the mountains near Asheville, NC.
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4-Month Carpentry Program
Get confident building for yourself and others. Our hands-on carpentry program is non-residential and takes place at Wild Abundance, located near Asheville, NC. It’s ... appropriate for beginning to intermediate level builders; no experience is necessary, just enthusiasm and a willingness to learn by doing. If you do have experience, there will be plenty of depth and advanced skills to dive into.
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All Genders Basic Carpentry
Get deep satisfaction from learning carpentry In a culture that’s zooming toward virtual reality and digitizing the day-to-day, not everyone grows up learning ... how to use tools and work with their hands. Our woodworking class for beginners and folks who have used tools, but don’t feel totally comfortable with them is here to change that. No matter your lifestyle, you surely interact with physical objects like shelves, chairs, tables. Learning carpentry can be rewarding and satisfying whether you want to build for yourself, feel confident fixing things around the house, or interacting with folks you hire in a confident way
- Sep 26-29, 2024
- Monthly or one time payment options available
- Secure checkout
- Flexible refund policy
- Sliding scale pricing based on income
Gardening and Permaculture Apprenticeship
Learn to grow vegetables and tend food forests in this one-day-per-week program that spans an entire growing ... season. Non-residential permaculture apprenticeship.
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Permaculture Design Certificate Course
This permaculture class empowers students to become effective ecological designers and planners. You will ... come out of this class with deep knowledge about creating forest gardens, ecology, permaculture principles, plant species and variety choices, holistic forestry, and more.
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Online Classes
It’s time to learn on our terms. Classes for women aren’t just classes for men with female teachers.
We believe that women’s empowerment is as much about the specific skills we need as it is about reclaiming our natural way of doing things. Teaching classes for women is rewarding and fun because, during the classes, we get to create the kind of gender equity and acceptance that we want to see in the world.
The reason that women don’t often feel confident with “hard skills” like carpentry and woodworking is not because we just aren’t good at them. It’s also not because we’re not interested. Too often these skills are taught by men in a very linear, outcome-oriented, male sort of way.
Our classes for women and the female-identified take into account a more feminine learning style. We put a focus on learning as we go, encouraging students to ask questions and ask for help. We work on group projects, along with individual ones, and we share meals together. This sense of togetherness and connection with the group helps everyone feel safe and welcome. We highlight different abilities and strengths, noticing that everyone’s contributions are needed and that they come in handy in different ways.
Teaching the trades to women opens doors.
One of our most popular classes is Women’s Basic Carpentry. So many women want to know how to build things! And we’ve seen over the years that they have really good ideas and designs. Many of them are really good builders. Without our classes for women, who knows if these folks would have ever been able to realize their visions? Their projects could have stayed in their imaginations forever.
Our Advanced Women’s Carpentry class teaches structural building, so women and the female-identified can put up their own sheds and gazebos and even build their own houses. Teaching these foundational skills allows women to follow their dreams. Some women dream of working in the trades, but just don’t know how to break into such a male-dominated world. Our humble hope is that our classes for women open the door for those women who want to be builders.
Rewilding for women: connecting with our roots.
The roots of our school go deep into the earth-based ancestral arts that inspired us so many years ago. Interacting with the natural environment and learning the skills and crafts of our ancestors has enriched our lives. Rewilding has grown our confidence and sense of place.
We know from personal experience that connecting with the undomesticated parts of ourselves is at the foundation of empowerment. We’re excited to offer a course in women’s primitive skills that covers such basic human acts as making fire by friction and foraging for medicinal plants. It also includes soapmaking; basketry; and menstrual, moon and menopause rituals, plus more. Of all of our classes for women, this one dives deep into what it means to be a human woman and how we can embrace the feminine parts of ourselves in our everyday lives.
Apprenticeships for women who are ready to change their lives.
Every year we welcome a few motivated individuals to be our apprentices. It’s the best way to learn all that we teach and to experience life on a permaculture homestead. Natalie Bogwalker, our founder and Director, is the main instructor for the apprentices. Our apprenticeships for women provide an opportunity to learn directly from this highly skilled and experienced woman in an intimate, small-group setting. The apprenticeship program is also open to men, and Natalie’s partner, Frank Salzano, along with other friends and neighbors, also guide and instruct apprentices. We create an inclusive environment throughout the apprenticeship season that fosters communication, honesty, vulnerability, personal growth and individualized learning.