Women’s Intro to Timber Framing Workshop

Photo Credit: Caitlin Augdahl

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Women make up less than 5% of US carpenters by trade. The purpose of this course is to provide a supportive learning environment for women to work with their hands, using traditional and modern tools to learn the craft of timber frame building. The women who take this class may use these skills to pursue personal building projects or continue to develop their skills in pursuit of a career working with wood.

Timber framing is the craft of joining wooden timbers together without the use of nails or metal fasteners. Timber frames are simple, strong, and elegant, and have stood for centuries around the world. In this workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of timber framing, from the use of hand and power tools to the layout and cutting of mortise and tenon joinery. On the final day of the course, students will work together to raise the frame and will go home with the knowledge and skills to continue their timber framing practice and build structures of their own.

Students will be housed on-site at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in our MAC Lodge with meals provided at the on-site dining hall. Housing is dormitory style with other Timber framing participants.

The structure being built during this workshop will serve as a covered vegetable-washing station for Wolf Ridge Farm. Wolf Ridge Farm grows over 13,000lb of produce seasonally, which is utilized in the Wolf Ridge dining hall and distributed to the surrounding community through farmers’ market, food shelf and farm-to-school programming.

Workshop instructor Jenna Pollard has taught timber frame workshops in Minnesota, Washington, and Arizona, and has been timber framing since 2010. She has built or assisted with building over a dozen timber frames, from her own small cabin to large pavilions for community gatherings. Her passion for teaching has led her to offer women’s timber framing courses as a way to grow the number of women in the trades and provide a supportive learning environment for other women.

Assistant instructor Abbey Dickhudt (she/her) is from Mankato, MN, and was introduced to woodworking initially through taking a bowl-turning class in 2019 at the Milan Village Arts School in Milan, MN. Since then, Abbey has continued to turn bowls and teach classes with Fireweed Woodshop in MSP, MN, and Mankato Makerspace. Along with this, she has enjoyed working in cabinetry and home remodeling, which act as her current career. Abbey was introduced to timber framing through mutual friends and was drawn in with the interest in using more hand tools and different building techniques. After taking a women’s class last year, Abbey was hooked and has continued to be involved in builds when possible. Abbey hopes to keep learning more about woodworking, timber framing, and overall, craftsmanship and building community. She hopes that by helping to teach these classes, more women and non-binary makers will feel able to be in the environment and explore their own curiosity in building these skills. Abbey believes in the ability to always learn new things from people and always take classes/new skills at a comfortable pace for students, thus making herself available for any questions, feedback, or added instruction.

Tools:

Students are encouraged to provide their own basic set of timber framing tools, which will allow them to become familiar with those tools during the workshop, and continue to practice timber framing into the future. This workshop is meant to be accessible to anyone who wishes to learn how to timber frame, and if the cost of tools is prohibitive, tools can be borrowed for the duration of the workshop. A tool list will be provided to all participants in advance of the course, or upon request for interested applicants.

Cost:

Tuition+ meals + lodging is $1,200

Tuition+ lunch only is $738

We recognize that students come from varying backgrounds and we are eager to make this workshop accessible to anyone interested in furthering their building skills. If interested in our scholarship, please fill out this form and send it to rachel.giemza@wolf-ridge.org

For those who wish to support this workshop and Wolf Ridge Farm, please consider donating the Women’s Timber Frame Scholarship Fund. Your donation will be used to offset the cost of tuition for students from socially disadvantaged communities. Donate Here .

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