These beautiful, supremely comfortable, custom fitted moccasins are patterned after the traditional footwear of the Cherokee, Seminole, Creek and other Southeastern tribes. We will learn how to take measurements of the foot, make a pattern, choose buckskin, lay out the pattern and cut the material. Then we do the precise stitching using simple awls and the buckskin thong lacing cut from the same hide. We will discuss long-term care, added sole pieces for durability, insole cushioning and hi-tops. Go home with the most comfortable footwear you have ever worn! They are warm, quiet, lightweight and made from natural materials. You will love them!

Vegan meals and camping included for this 3-day workshop! If you'd to sleep inside, please reach out. We can probably make that happen.

Instructor

Jeff Gottlieb

Jeffrey Gottlieb, MS (in Biology), has been a Naturalist, Outdoor Educator and Primitive Skills Instructor for more than 40 years. He works with school groups, nature centers, museums, scout troops and summer camps, builds full-sized wigwams and longhouses and replicates primitive tools and artifacts for display. His areas of special interest include fiber arts, flintknapping, basketry, edible and utilitarian plants, and nature awareness. He travels widely in the Eastern U.S. teaching at rendezvous, gatherings and historic fairs. He has written a how-to manual on building wigwams, an instructors' manual entitled Teaching Primitive Skills to Children and a book on natural fibers and ropemaking called Fibers of Life. Books are available directly from him. He welcomes correspondence and can be reached via email at [email protected], or at 11 Horse Hills Lane, Whittier, NC, 28789. Check out his website at: www.theprimitivenaturalist.com.

About the Host Site

Rustling Roots, located at Cambia Community

Rustling Roots is a small-scale ecological education center located at Cambia Community in Louisa VA. We seek to empower individuals and communities to care for their land and understand the challenge of climate change, while providing practical skills needed for living on the land and regenerating local culture through community, sharing, theater and arts. Rustling Roots hosts hands-on educational opportunities including student field trips, youth programs, tours, workshops, summer camp with some overnight stays, internships, and artist residencies.

Bio: Cambia Community is a re-forming, income-sharing, intentional community in Louisa, VA. Cambia values ecological health, creating intentional family, deep connections, and supporting each other, our children, and our continued learning and personal growth. We’re off-grid, vegan, build our own shelters with local and natural materials, have fruit trees and a vegetable garden, and run a small-scale ecological education center called Rustling Roots. 

We are located within a thriving cluster of intentional communities, and together we are working toward a viable, regenerative alternative to the mainstream. These communities include Twin Oaks, Acorn, Living Energy Farm, and Serenity.