Waterford Craft School

Make by hand.

2023

Jerry Bond

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Wood-Fired Baking (Ages 10-13)

Jerry Bond is a retired Natural Resource Police Officer who has developed a passion for all things bread. He began baking cookies when his wife went back to college and has continued to study and develop his knowledge of baking over the past 20 years. For the past 10 years, he has focused on bread and pizza making, using both yeasted methods and traditional sourdough. He has taken classes in specialty breads and wood oven baking from several master bakers.

Jerry’s teaching experience includes nature programming, outdoor recreation, hunter safety, coaching sports, and since retirement, sharing his love of bread baking with others. He has taught bread and pizza classes to groups of various sizes, from one on one to groups as large as 20 in private homes, businesses and schools.  He joined the Waterford Craft School’s instructor team in 2020, leading a series of popular, virtual baking classes.

Laura Handley

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Survival Adventure (Ages 10-13) & Survival Skills (Ages 14-17)

Laura Handley is a teacher and writer with a deep interest in the natural world and how to survive and thrive within it. She picked up survival skills through years of hiking, camping, and foraging and honed them as a teaching assistant and co-instructor at Advanced Survival Training in Fauquier County, VA.

She currently works as a high-school math teacher and volunteers extensively in habitat restoration and wildlife monitoring. She also blogs about her foraging and wildcrafting projects on Instagram as @fairfaxforager.

Alika Middleton

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Art & Nature Exploration (Ages 6-10)

Alika Middleton is an artist and art educator who empowers her students to trust their own creative process. She has taught visual art for the last nine years in international and private schools ranging from early childhood to high school. She is the founder of Wild Wonder Creators, a program that brings creative arts and nature together in a playful and explorative way. As an educator, she values the importance of social-emotional learning by making sure all of her students feel safe, seen, and fully supported.

Vyvyan Rundgren

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Barn Quilt Painting

Vyvyan Rundgren became interested in painted floor cloths (both on canvas and linoleum), which gave a new dimension to her life-long love of art. For eight years she was an instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School in NC and also taught workshops throughout central Virginia. The painted floor cloth concept expanded to include floor quilts (fabric) and floor pages (paper). Her book, Floor Cloths, Quilts & Pages was released in 2015.

Vyvyan serves as an officer on the Board of Directors for the Art Guild of Greene County. Through the Art Guild and with the support of the Greene County Economic Development & Tourism she founded the Blue Ridge Barn Quilt Project and it has grown to be the largest barn quilt trail in Virginia, now having over 150 artworks on display. She not only paints many of the barn quilts, she also conducts workshops to teach others how to create their own.

Peggy Wertheim

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Traditional Marbling on Specialty Paper, Cotton & Silk

Peggy J. Wertheim, M.A.T. Surface Design Artist and Master Teaching Artist in marbling, silk painting, batik, shibori, and complex dyeing. Her 40+ year career began with textile color exploration and completion of a Master of Arts in Teaching from Miami University. Ms. Wertheim has exhibited at hundreds of juried and invitational shows and galleries simultaneously while offering workshops. This allows her to share her expertise and creativity with her love of teaching. In 2013, she was the only Teaching Artist in the USA selected to attend the prestigious Rauschenberg Foundation Power of Art Conference. She currently devotes herself to teaching workshops, private classes, and creating her Art to Wear and framed artworks.

Cory Ryan

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Pine Needle Basketry

For Cory Ryan, art was always a hobby and her therapy from a stressful IT job. She started with folk art and had a goal to learn something new as the years went by. She learned to make baskets with longleaf pine needles from a friend’s mother, who had learned from her mother! She is pleased to carry on this heritage craft tradition. She teaches a variety of classes, ranging from quilling to pine needle basketry, and is serving her fourth term as President of the Art Guild of Greene in Greene County, VA. Now retired from the corporate world, Cory creates art to display and sell at a local craft shop in Ruckersville, VA.

Maureen Anderson

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Herbal Remedies & Cold Process Soap Making

Maureen Anderson, teacher, goatherd, beekeeper, shepherdess, soap maker, mother of eight and grandmother of 10, has had a lifelong interest in farming, homesteading and herbal medicine. 

She began this journey of learning when she was a child, taught many of these skills by a grandmother who instilled a love of herbs, family life, and wildcrafting. At her historic Home Farm, Maureen hosts workshops and classes on sustainable living, herbal medicine making, wild food foraging, and cheese making. 

In March of 2020 she created the Toano Open Air Market in response to the community’s need for a safe and reliable place to shop, and for the local farmers’ and artisans’ need for an income during the pandemic closings.  Maureen is the creator of The MotherVine radio program and owner of Tasha’s Own Goat’s Milk Soap and The Home Farm.

Candace Stribling

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Make Your Own Bead Chain Jewelry

Candace Stribling began her love of jewelry-making after purchasing a kit at Michaels. She fell in love with the technical skills required in jewelry-making, and for the opportunity it provides for her to explore her creativity. She also fell in love with beads, especially beads from Africa, India, and other countries.

Candace took her first metalsmithing class at Glen Echo, and has since taken courses at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center in Frederick, MD and at JewelryClassDC in Washington, DC. She finds she can best express her creative abilities by forming and shaping metal. All of her pieces start as sheet or wire and end up as a piece of one-of-kind jewelry using soldering, forming, hammering, and setting stones. Candace is a Waterford Landmark Artisan, exemplifying excellence in craftsmanship and education during the Waterford Fair, and for her commitment to the Waterford Foundation.