Our goal at Venoge is to understand and interpret the lives and material culture of the early French-Swiss inhabitants. One of the ways we do this is to teach the decorative arts common at the time. We try to offer arts that anyone can do without a specialized skill. We also like to show examples available in museums or collections. Our classes are casual and taught in the Venoge Cottage.
Information on upcoming Summer Classes can be found on the Living History Events & Summer Classes page.
Vinegar Graining
Donna Weaver, Director of Musée de Venoge, demonstrates a 19th-century decorative arts technique of vinegar graining. A summer workshop is available for those interested in learning more about this easy and clever method of embellishment.
Watch time 5:17
The vinegar graining class once again filled the Venoge Cottage. Participants learned a bit of graining history and went on to applying color to their boxes using feathers, sponges or brushes. Then the boxes were sealed with shellac and dried.
Basic Spinning
Venoge offered a beginning spinning class that filled the Venoge Cottage. It was taught by Peggy Taylor of Loom Hall and Pat Hale-Dorrell. They guided the students in the use of the various wheels and also brought several with them and some students brought their own wheel. The goal was to spin a hank of wool. They were all successful.
Pin-pricked Fraktur
Venoge held a class to create a pin-pricked-fraktur. These are made by piercing a folded square piece of paper. This makes the design perfectly symmetrical when the paper is opened. Then the paper is painted in a decorative manner. Early 19 c. examples were shown. Everyone choose their own colors and designs. The finished work was ready to be framed.
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