Instructors
Larry Antonuk: NH
Larry began his fly-tying career in 1969, using a Herter’s Fly-Tying Kit he received for Christmas. Between then and now he has studied fly tying in England, New Zealand, Scotland, and of course with a variety of master fly tyers in New England. In 2006 Larry was awarded a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant which allowed him to study over the course of a year with Master Fly Tyer Bob Wyatt in Concord, NH. Larry produces traditional salmon flies in frames and glass domes, and makes fly pins – useful for hat pins, brooches, tie-tacks, etc.
Sometime in 2010, Larry found himself on a tour of the Enfield Shaker Museum in Enfield, NH. While watching a broom making demonstration, he became fascinated with the process and wound up coming back for a tutorial with Master Broom Maker Susan Brown. One thing led to another, and Larry is now a frequent demonstrator at Enfield. He has researched and reproduced a variety of Shaker designs, and sells his work at Shaker museums in Enfield, Canterbury, Watervliet, New York, and Sabbath day Lake, Maine – the last active Shaker village.
Rachel Barclay
Rachel Barclay studied Textiles, Installation Sculpture, Printmaking, and Elementary Education in San Francisco and Long Beach, California. Throughout her journey as a creator, educator, and parent, she has focused on making functional sewn and embellished garments, home goods, and mixed media textile objects. She works from her studio in Hartford, Connecticut. She lives with woodworking spouse, Michael Pekovich with their two adult offspring nearby. Follow her creative process on Instagram @rachelharrietteb or peruse her website www.rachelharriette.com
Kokoro Bensonoff
Born in Tochigi, Japan, Kokoro has always been passionate about exploring the intersection of beauty and functionality through craft. After relocating to Boston and
graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she honed her skills in chair caning and furniture restoration at The Caning Shoppe and RARE Restoration.
Later, in Western Massachusetts, Kokoro explored functional arts through weaving with locally-sourced plants and reclaimed materials. She finds a deep sense of meaning and purpose in bringing new life to old objects through the art of restoration.
Kokoro maintains a studio practice in Western, MA.
Visit www.kokorocrafts.com to learn more about Kokoro and her work.
Joe Bills
Joe Bills has two main passions in life, horses and blacksmithing. He was first introduced to blacksmithing in junior high. While attending high school, Joe worked on a large horse farm. It was there that he first saw a horse being shod, and in the early 1980’s he enrolled in and graduated from Oklahoma Farrier College. For thirty years Joe worked as a professional farrier. During that time, he never lost his passion for blacksmithing, taking many workshops, clinics, and learning from talented smiths. Joe is a member of the northeast blacksmithing association and the capital district blacksmith association. He maintains his own forge in a, what else? converted horse barn, where he shares his knowledge of the craft by giving demonstrations to local school groups.
Steve Butler: Mill River, MA
Creating a community for learning such as The Mill River Folk School is a natural fit for Steve. He has over two decades of non-profit educational experience. He brings valuable knowledge and insight to the position of Director. He has taught as a guest instructor at various art & craft institutions and is a former Department Head at Peters Valley Craft Center and the Worcester Center for Crafts. As a furniture maker, he has been creating objects for over thirty years.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Steve began his career serving a formal apprenticeship. Upon completion, he worked in various woodworking shops. As his passion for art and craft grew, Steve pursued formal training at Sheridan College of Art and Design, majoring in furniture design. Graduating from Sheridan, he went on to study technological education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
He maintains a studio practice and has exhibited his work throughout the US and Canada. He’s been featured in and has authored various publications and books. Steve is the producer and host of the television woodworking show ‘The Garage with Steve Butler’ on PBS and Create TV.
Nancy Donovan
Berkshire native Nancy Donovan has been creating quilling projects for family, friends, and clients for forty years. She is a genuine teacher, who is always willing to share her expertise with others. Nancy’s work will be showcased at the Bidwell House Museum’s June 2026 fair.
Andrew Jack: East Canaan, CT
Andrew makes and teaches the construction of Windsor chairs using a blend of contemporary and traditional techniques. He also carves wooden utensils using traditional Slojd processes.
Working with green wood and hand tools allows his handmade chairs and woodenware to appear and feel “light” and “delicate” yet maintain the strength of a tree.
These methods are sound and sustainable because they require minimal electricity, they honor the integrity of a tree, they create byproducts that are easily recycled, and they produce an heirloom quality product that will last for generations.
Visit www.andrewjack.net to learn more about Andrew, and his fine work.
Wendy Jensen
Wendy Jensen is an award-winning professional basket maker living in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. She exhibits her work at juried craft shows and galleries nationally, and has taught basket making at many conferences, craft schools, museums and private facilities as well as her own studio for over 25 years. Her work was selected for publication in Lark Books’ 500 Baskets. Although a majority of her work is made with rattan/reed, she has also been cultivating and weaving with basket willow for over 20 years.
Edith Joy King
Edith Joy King took a birch bark basket workshop just after the covid pandemic. She’s been working with birch bark full time ever since that workshop. Using bark collected from fallen trees, each unique object is individually crafted with its own distinct personality. She exhibits and sells her work at various fairs and markets and has won numerous awards.
David Lane: North Adams. MA
Theatre artist and sculptor David Lane is a three-time Jim Henson Foundation grant recipient. He has a fondness for puppetry arts and exploring the interplay between visual arts and storytelling. His practice includes European style wood carving. Through the slow working process of using traditional hand tools, his sculpted carvings manifest and take life. David often finishes his carvings with hand-made paint, custom mixed for each of his sculpted figures. His latest play Emile Zola’s The Belly of Paris will feature a cast of hand carved wooden puppets, in production at the Adams theatre, Fall 2025.
Jennifer Lee: MA
Jennifer has been enjoying making bark baskets for 40 years. Her interest began with the study of her Northeast woodland Native American ancestors. She is enrolled with the Metis nation of North America and the Northern Narragansetts. She teaches bark basket classes and educational programs extensively. The bark roots and branches are harvested wildly by her family in the Northern Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. She’s received awards at the Mohegan Wigwam Festival, Saratoga Native American Festival, Kearsarge Indian Museum, Deerfield Craft Show and North Carolina Basket makers Association. Jennifer enjoys spending time with her grandkids, gardening, berry picking, maintaining the houses she built, and making baskets.
Visit www.barkbasketsbyjlee.com to learn more about Jennifer and her wonderful bark baskets.
Rick Liegl
Rick Liegl is a master woodcarver who teaches and demonstrates his craft at various museums and institutions throughout New England. He is a co-founder of Colonial Crafts of Connecticut, whose mission is to preserve and promote colonial arts and handcrafts through fostering community events and workshops.
Sherry Maihle
Sherry Maihle has been sewing and creating wonderful objects for many years. She was introduced to sewing at the age of eight and then took classes after school regularly at the local girl’s club. Sherry has always shared her vast sewing knowledge with others and has altered clothing for family and friends. Upon retiring she replaced working full-time with her passion for sewing, creating one-of-a- kind denim bags that she sells at various craft fairs and farmers markets.
Sue McFarland
Sue McFarland began the journey of exploring fiber as artistic expression in 1982 as a hand weaver. In 2005 she apprenticed with a local felt maker and expanded her repertoire to include both two- and three-dimensional work. She maintains a working studio where she produces both functional accessories, sculptural and hanging work. Everything she makes is designed, fabricated and finished by her own hand.
Elizabeth Orenstein Naylor
Elizabeth Orenstein Naylor was born in Monterey, MA, and has lived in and loved the Berkshires most of her life. Her love of beeswax candles started as a child in Waldorf schools. Elizabeth attended colleges in Halifax, Nova Scotia and northern Vermont, where she studied classics, art history, fine arts, and ethnobotany. She has taught fine arts, biology, and chemistry to students of all ages. Elizabeth is happily settled in Southern Berkshire County with her husband and daughter.
Elizabeth Orenstein Naylor
art | garden | floristry | design
Joe Pappas
Joe Pappas is the orchardist/orchard manager at Sandisfield Orchard in Sandisfield, MA, overseeing approximately 30 acres of semi-dwarf trees of fresh eating, heirloom, and cider varieties. He has over 15 years of professional full-time experience in commercial fruit orchards all over the northeast, including both very large- and small-scale operations. Joe has an innate understanding of the orchard ecosystem, and how it functions from winter dormancy, through to harvest time.
Mike Pagnani
Mike Pagnani is a multi-instrumentalist and singer who specializes in performing, teaching, and curating folk and traditional music. Mike performs regularly in the Hudson Valley as a soloist with the bluegrass fusion band Beer-Stained Fiddle. He also leads Pub Sings, Jams, Song Circles and Traditional Session. Audiences can expect a range of music including Irish and American folk songs, rock, country, blues and bluegrass covers and a great many originals.
Mike’s individual instrumental lessons in fiddle, banjo, accordion, piano, guitar, and other instruments have reached students ranging in age from four to eighty-four and have introduced music to some and offered improvement for others. Mike focuses on ear learning, the folk method and a generally holistic and student-centered approach to music education.
David Reed
David Reed is a man of many talents, who has led many lives. As a multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter/recording artist, he has produced and recorded seven CDs. As a public-school music teacher, he taught band and chorus and was the orchestra director. David is an author, a session player, and founder/guitarist (1970-74) of the nationally acclaimed, and highly influential jam band Max Creek, who continues to record and tour to this day.
He has been a guest Arts & Technology lecturer at New York University, where he demonstrated and lectured about the “History, Art & Construction of Cigar Box Instruments. All these lives have made David a seasoned performer who has built over 250 wonderfully unique and quirky cigar box guitars under the aegis of “Dr. Easy’s Sonic Boxes” from which he delivers his personal brand of tasty, slip-slidin’ juke joint country blues & smokehouse rock.
Kathryn Greenwood Swanson: MA
Kathryn is a lifelong fiber artist and teacher from Western Mass. She is also the owner of Swanson’s Fabrics, a fabric and fiber arts thrift store in Turners Falls stocked fully from the donations of home sewers. She’s been rug braiding for 8 years.
Visit www.swansonfabrics.com to learn more about Kathryn and Swanson’s Fabrics
