Instructors
Fred DeCicco
Fred DeCicco is a retired fisheries biologist and flyfishing guide with Twin Peaks Adventures. He is a Certified Casting Instructor through the International Federation of Fly Fishers and an avid fly fisher who has fished throughout Alaska and other parts of the world.
Lynn DeFilippo
Lynn DeFilippo is an avid knitter, spinner, and fiber crafter, as well as a full time 5th grade teacher. The creator of Goldstream Knits, she enjoys creating accessory patterns designed to be simple, fun, and functional for the Alaskan knitter. She’s lived and worked all over the state for over 25 years, and has many years of experience gathering, processing, knitting, and spinning wild qiviut from the Nome area. Her knitting and spinning is inspired by nature.
Janice Densham
Janice retired last year after 12 years of owning her own Toyo service and repair business in the greater Fairbanks area. Prior to starting her business she was a heavy equipment mechanic on the North end of the Alaska pipeline for 17 years. Often referred to as “Diesel Girl”, her strong ‘perfume’ could be detected long before she entered a room!
Madeline deRepentigny
I’m Alaska Native, Han Athabascan from the Yukon River. I learned about plant medicine from my mother and the knowledge has been passed down through generations. It is now my turn to share the knowledge with my daughter and others who want to learn.
Kristi Downing
I’m Kristi Downing and I’ve lived in Fairbanks for . . . a long time. I love camping, hiking, reading, skiing, teaching, being with family and friends, and being surrounded by the forest. In artistic pursuits, I enjoy knitting and felting, watercolors, carving, sewing and a myriad of other random creative interests.
I’ve worked with kids as a 2nd grade teacher, as a parent, and as a tutor and mentor for high schools students here in Fairbanks. In my felting world, I have taught needle felting as an after-school enrichment activity for elementary students, as well as during an Artist-in-Residence for BEST homeschool students in 2019. I have also done a lot of needle felting with my own children, as well as with friends.
I have a love of connecting children with nature as a place to learn and grow, as well as a perfect place-based classroom. I am completing my Masters of Elementary Education with a focus on embracing the Forest School ethos in our work with raising and teaching/mentoring our children. In addition, I am a certified elementary teacher in Alaska, currently homeschooling my own children.
Chris DuBois
My 24 year residence in Alaska (Bethel to Fairbanks) has been occupied by my loving partner Nancy, nursing, farming, and being a b&b host; as well as a life long DIYer. Growing up in rural Colorado I learned it was important to learn a broad range of skills to maintain daily needs. Also, I value learning common techniques and skills used in past daily life.
It was my good fortune to meet Randy Brown many years ago and learn from his passion for bowl carving. I’ve been carving since 2015 and still learn something new in every bowl. My 2 favorite quotes are “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” by William Morris and “If you need it, make it” found on an unauthored sign in a shearing shed in South Australia.
Dwayne Eager
I am a retired middle school teacher who got involved in fiber arts through my daughters 4H project. Now we have eight Tunis X sheep and two goats who live in our back yard. I learned the drop spindle to have something to do with all the fiber they were producing and to keep my hands busy. Now I am involved in all kinds of fiber arts including weaving, dying, felting, and naalbinding. Being a social studies teacher for 25 years, teaching living history is a passion of mine. I love learning the history behind skills that have been done in in the past then teaching them to others.
Shana Eager
Shana Eager is a life long crocheter. She has extensive experience working with children and adults and enjoys working with families. She is a local farmer who keeps a small flock of sheep and loves spinning and making things from her own wool. She has been working for over 15 years with the 4H program.
Amy Edler
Amy Edler has been sewing since she was a child, learning to sew from her mother and her grandmothers. She started sewing her own clothes in high school and continues to sew custom clothing for herself and others. She started teaching sewing in 2017 and has enjoyed sharing her passion for sewing with others. Her teaching practice is centered on empowering people to make and mend their clothing. She feels that having clothes that fits is important for everyone and slow fashion help keeps textiles out of the landfill.
Elizabeth Eero Irving
Elizabeth Eero Irving is a lifelong Fairbanks gardener, having first learned food production from her (amazing) gardener Mom. Elizabeth went on to work for 10 years in production and retail sales greenhouses in all genres of gardening and landscape planting. She believes growing our own healthy, organic food is the utmost form of self-sufficiency (plus, it’s fun!) and it’s a skill she loves teaching anyone who will listen.
Christine Fik
I have been a runner for 15 years. Progressing and learning over time, I have come to enjoy the barefoot and minimalist style most. I have made these hurraches for a few seasons and I thought teaching this class would be a fun way to meet more minimalist runners in Fairbanks!
Melissa Fischer
Melissa is a life-long Alaskan with a passion for the outdoors and self-sufficiency. She grew up in Delta Junction and was taught at a young age the importance of living off the land and providing for herself. Right out of high school she chose to pursue a career in wildland fire and has been doing it ever since. A large part of her job over the years has been to become proficient in the use of chainsaws. With over 18 years of experience, she hopes to share that knowledge and power with other people who are curious and hungry to be more self-sufficient and powerful. Working in a male-dominated field as a woman has taught her many things, one of those being the importance of empowering and supporting fellow women. She hopes to show people what she has learned and help them reach their full potential. She prides herself in being an effective and supportive leader and a strong role model.
Dana Fjare
Dana Fjare has lived in Fairbanks since 2012 and raises rabbits for show, meat, and fur production. She is a member of the Interior Rabbit and Cavy Club, the National Rex Rabbit Club, and the American Rabbit Breeders Association.
Robin Dale Ford
Robin has always made music the center of her life. She started her training on piano, but at an outdoor festival she stumbled upon musical icon Taj Mahal playing “Colored Aristocracy” in the Clawhammer banjo style and it changed her direction. She found a fine, old Tubaphone banjo and headed to Alaska where she joined an Old-Time string band called The Sidewinders. That started a five-decade career performing live on banjo and in numerous dance bands on electric bass, writing and recording original songs, teaching private lessons and co-owning 10th Planet Recording Studio with partner Pat Fitzgerald for thirty years. She has recently made a joyous return to the piano as a limitless songwriting tool. Stay tuned.
Teal Francis
Teal Francis is an artist living and working in Fairbanks. Born in Central Oregon, she has a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from the University of Nevada, Reno and a Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College. She has worked in printmaking studios in Seattle and Reno. She works primarily in block and screen printing (as well as some painting, ceramics, sewing, and sculpture), and her artwork is about open-endedness and play. She enjoys hiking in Interior Alaska’s fleeting autumn, dancing with abandon, and her two cats. You can find Teal online at tealfrancis.com or on Instagram at tealarrow.
Beverly Frey
I have worked with my hands my whole life. My curiosity and ADHD has led me to learn to work in multiple media: paper, wood, glass and metal, to name a few. I spent about 20 years taking metalsmithing classes at UAF from Jack Finch. In my former work life, I gained experience teaching classes in web design and HTML at UAF. I’ve taught classes at the Folk School in Pysanky Egg Decorating. I’ve also taught Suminagashi Paper Marbling at the Folk School and through UAF’s OLLI program. I discovered Straw Marquetry on Pinterest and taught myself how to make jewelry and cover wood boxes through trial and error during Covid. I’m currently playing a lot with paper weaving and cutting. And I’m always making some new jewelry in paper.
Liz and Sarah Furman
Sarah and Liz Furman are Fairbanks herbalists who wildharvest and cultivate herbs for food and healing the mind and body. They are owners of the local business, Twinflower (http://www.twinfloweralaska.com), which makes herbal salves, extracts, teas, and syrups.
Penelope Gold
I’m Penelope, longtime homeschooling mom to many and a sewist by trade. I have been teaching sewing for several years and enjoy my job. I look forward to every new class and to watching everyone grow in ability and in new friendships and new interests.
Dorian Granger
Hi, I’m Dorian! As a lifelong Alaskan who grew up biking and skiing around Fairbanks, I have always wished we had more access to friendly, prompt, reliable bike and ski services in our community. I enjoy the ongoing learning journey, and love providing expert service to our community. I’m the owner and operator of Bankstown Bike and Ski and my goal is to bring expertise and friendly service to more of our community, and make it easier for everyone to have their gear worked on by a professional.
Somer Hahm
Somer Hahm is a visual artist and a visitor living and working on the ancestral lands of the Tanana Dene peoples, also known as Fairbanks, Alaska. She received a BFA from University of Montana, Missoula in 2005 and an MFA, with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing, from University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2008.
With robust involvement in the Fairbanks art community, Somer exhibits her work statewide. She is a teaching artist, and instructs painting and drawing workshops for The Folk School of Fairbanks and Well Street Art Company, and is Adjunct Professor of Drawing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Somer has dual roles in the arts community of Fairbanks, and is employed at Fairbanks Arts Association as Exhibition Technician. Somer enjoys working one-on-one with nationally known and Alaskan artists in all career stages and hands-on with a diverse variety of artworks installing the art exhibitions at FAA’s Bear Gallery.
Motivated to create community involvement and interest in public art, Somer founded the Far North Quilt Trail in 2019. Alaska’s first barn quilt trail is a community-wide, creative place-making endeavor that has activated the visual landscape with vibrant public art. Hahm has received support for her work through a 2020 Rasmuson Individual Artist Project Award, the Alaska Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts to further her artist-led endeavor of creative place-making, initiating Alaska’s first barn quilt trail. Somer is a mother of two young children.