Rural Crafts

All our rural crafts experiences are hands-on workshops and courses where you learn traditional techniques used by artisans for centuries. Often set in scenic rural locations, these experiences cover heritage skills in areas such as basket weaving, dry stone walling and more.

No prior experience if necessary for our rural craft courses. Workshops are designed as tasters for complete beginners, novices and hobbyists alike. Expert craftspeople who host and run the sessions will provide step-by-step instruction and guidance with bags of patience!

Most courses are held in the workshops used by the professional artisan, which means you are getting a hands-on insight into their jobs. Their premises are often in rural locations from historic working forges, to basecamps in the the woodlands and working outdoors in the Peak District.

On a traditional basket weaving experience you will, under the tutelage of your expert weaver host, use time-served methods such as 'stake and strand' weaving to create your very own hand-woven basket to take home with you.

Get prepared to get properly stuck in! A dry stone walling course teaches you the principles of building and repairing traditional stone walls without mortar, with lots of practical tasks. Typically spread over a weekend, you will work outside with professional wallers, learning how to lay foundations and coping, as well as things like stone selection.

These arrow-making courses are all about immersion into ancient rural life. At the woodland basecamp you'll learn age-old arrow-making skills such as shaping shafts, attaching feather fletchings and fitting points all by hand.

Yes, absolutely. These workshops are all about hand-crafting typical agricultural/woodworking tools in the same way crafts folk have been doing for centuries. Working under professional supervision, you will make functional tools such as axes, knives and flint strikers.

Durations of the courses and workshops varies according to the complexity of the craft. Into The Blue offers intensive one-day courses in crafts such as basket weaving and multi-day courses lasting anything from two to four days for rural skills such as stone walling, to give you an in-depth insight.

Yes. All the raw materials (unless otherwise stated) as well as the specialist tools are provided. Safety equipment will be provided for you too. Your host will contact you before your course with any practical information such as what to wear etc.

Yes, very much so! Rural craft vouchers make unique, thoughtful gifts for birthday, Christmas or special occasions. Into The Blue offers flexible delivery options including E-Vouchers and standard vouchers are valid for 12 months from the purchase date.