About Me

My name is Callan Burton-Shore. I am an ancestral skills teacher and traditional craftsperson living outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

I teach friction fire, hide tanning, spoon carving, and other skills throughout Western North Carolina and the Southeast. When I’m not teaching or creating, you will likely find me swimming in a river, cooking meat over a fire, or climbing a tree!

In addition to teaching my own classes, I have taught at The Green WoodWrights Festival, Wild Abundance, Forest Floor Wilderness Programs, The Little Wild School, The Living Earth School, Olive’s Porch (an extension of John C. Campbell Folk School.) various earthskills gatherings, and beyond.

My Craft

Though I am passionate about many traditional skills, wood and hide craft have been my focus for the last 4 years and sources of inspiration throughout my entire life.

Spoons + Woodenware

I offer cooking spoons, eating spoons, coffee scoops, forks, butter knives, spatulas and more.

I began carving because of the connection to the land it brings me. The use of raw, living materials and the constant balance of creativity and function inspire me endlessly.

Carving wood is a traditional skill that is practiced all over the world. My carving practice has been especially influenced by the Sloyd movement of Scandinavia. This method of woodworking emphasizes the use of hand tools and local materials over machines and exotic wood. My spoons and other woodenware are handmade from locally harvested green wood. I use a hatchet, a sloyd knife, and a hook knife; no power tools or sandpaper.

Hides

The majority of the modern leather industry uses chromium and other dangerous chemicals to turn animal skins into useable material. But for hundreds of years our ancestors tanned hides using natural methods that did not harm them or the earth. In my hide practice, I use both the “vegetable tanning” and “brain tanning” methods to make buckskin, leather, and tan furs. I harvest tannic bark and leaves from the trees and plants in my ecosystem for vegetable tanning and use use eggs and wood smoke for brain tanning.