Confirmed pre-fest course tutors for 2026 are: Liesl Chatman & Owen Thomas – scroll down to see details of the courses and stay tuned for more announcements.
Tickets for pre-fest go on sale Sunday 1st March 2026
Pre-fest tickets do not include attendance to the festival itself, however we do always save some fest tickets for folk who attend pre-fest. So if you miss out on festival tickets but have a pre-fest space, we will make sure you can attend for the whole event. Main fest itself costs £115 – just put yourself on the festival waiting list, and get in touch!
About Pre-fest
Spoonfest is a fantastic sharing of skills and great fun but the workshops are just short taster sessions. If you really want to learn then you need longer.
Since we have some of the best spooncarvers in the world coming we thought we should get them here three days earlier and offer the chance of a longer course. Not only will you have the enjoyment of learning with a small group from a master carver you will also be sharing the Spoonfest site with 4 other courses so we all get to see what the other tutors are up to as well.
Courses cost £275 including all materials, unless otherwise stated. All courses run 2pm-5.30pm on Tues 28th July and 9.30-4.30 on Weds 29th July and Thurs 30th July. Free camping on site is included, as is a good lunch each day and lots of tea and coffee. The fires will be going in the evenings for folk to cook over or often there’s a large group goes to eat at a local pub.
We have big shared lunchtime meals and can see progress in all the classes, almost 5 classes for the price of one. For the folk who come on these special courses the atmosphere is great.
Pre fest courses are aimed at folk who can already use the basic tools rather than absolute beginners. You will need to bring your own tools for your class.
Liesl Chatman
As a traditional folk artist, teacher, and amatuer folklorist, Liesl is on a mission to rekindle the accessible and enjoyable traditional decorative folk art of kolrosing (think of kolrosing as tattooing wood). She is an accomplished spoon carver, and her kolrosed spoons have been exhibited at museums including a one-woman show of 35 illustrated story spoons at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.
Kolrosing is an endangered craft—it is officially “red-listed” in Norway. As part of her mission, Liesl has travelled to Sweden and Norway to both teach kolrosing and to explore its lore dating back to medieval and Viking times.
A passionate teacher, she has won numerous awards over the course of her 35-year career in education. In her teaching of craft, Liesl works with students to carve spoons and kolrose wood with confidence and joy through mindfulness, technique, and practice. She was the 2023 Folk Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an American Scandinavian Foundation Fellow. She teaches at the American Swedish Institute, John C. Campbell Folk School, North House Folk School, and the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum. In Scandinavia, she is an invited teacher at Sätergläntan in Sweden and at Rauland Akademiet and the Gudbrandals Museum in Norway. In the fall of 2026, Liesl and Jögge Sundqvist will undertake a road trip down the spine of Norway to chase the disappearing lore of Norwegian kolrosing.
Through this course, you will be able to explore kolrosing on your own with confidence and joy through good techniques and practice. You will be able to make something extra special through kolrosing—like putting someone’s name or their birthday or kolrosing an image on a special wooden object like a spoon. This course will focus on three foundational areas:
(1) technique: how to use a kolrosing knife, grips, how to hold what you are kolrosing;
(2) design: drawing and kolrosing borders, letters and numbers, and illustrations; and
(3) prepping and finishing: using burnishing and oils that cure to make durable finishes and bright kolrosing that endures.
As you grow in confidence and skills, you may make kolrosed sampler boards, name tags, and decorate spoons and spreaders that you have brought along. Prior experience in woodworking is helpful. Del Stubbs kolrosing knives will be available for purchase.
Owen Thomas
Owen is an internationally recognised, award winning maker and teacher who specialises in Pole Lathe turning and spoon carving. Owen has taught green woodwork for over 10 years both at his workshop and events in the UK, and also internationally. In 2022, he travelled to teach at the renowned craft school Saterglanten in Sweden where he was awarded the Sundqvist / Coperthwaite Slojd Fellowship by Jogge Sundqvist.
He also works extensively with organisations in Herefordshire to teach skills to individuals with mental health issues, neurodivergent people and individuals with learning difficulties. Here, he has developed courses and teaching structures to help build confidence and resilience using woodwork as a therapeutic tool.
Owen aims to create beautiful but functional items for people to use and to be an advocate for the further development of green woodwork and slojd. Owen’s making and design process is informed by Welsh folk art, Scandinavian handcraft, the punk culture and folklore.
Learn how to use a pole lathe and specialist hook tools to create various types of turned spoon. You will have the opportunity to learn both side grain and end grain turning techniques and tips on how to select wood and prepare blanks. These techniques are transferrable to a huge variety of turned treen such as bowls & cups.
You will learn how to turn an end grain flour scoop on day one, and then progress on to a roman ladle (as seen in Spon). Intermediate or advanced turners may also have time to explore different forms of turned spoons.
All specialist tools will be available to use, but you may bring your own turning hooks if you wish.
www.instagram.com/owenthomaswoodcraft
www.owenthomaswoodcraft.com
