Appalachian Juju Workshops
Protection, Blessing, and Household Practices
Crafting Appalachian Wards and Charms
Explore the history and purpose of household protections in Appalachian folk practice while creating simple handmade wards and charms from natural and everyday materials. This hands-on workshop blends cultural context, practical instruction, and respectful spiritual tradition.
Besom Making: Household Tool, Symbol, and Working
Learn the history, symbolism, and household uses of the besom (broom) in Appalachian folk practice while creating a simple hand-tied one of your own. This workshop combines practical craft, cultural context, and traditional ideas of cleansing, protection, and tending the home.
The Family Bible in Appalachia
Learn why the family Bible held such an important place in Appalachian homes—as a record of births, deaths, marriages, and kinship; a source of comfort and instruction; and, in some families, a tool for protection, healing, and household practice. This workshop explores the history, symbolism, and everyday Appalachian spiritual uses of the family Bible with care and cultural context.
Thread, Cloth & Women’s Handwork
Stitching Protection
Learn how thread, cloth, knots, and hidden stitches carried protection, prayer, memory, and intention in Appalachian homes. This hands-on workshop explores practices such as tying knots, sewing verses or symbols into hems, and using scraps of meaningful fabric while creating a small protective textile piece of your own.
Quilts, Cloth, and Memory
Learn how quilts, clothing, scraps, and household cloth carried family history, grief, faith, protection, and memory through Appalachian life. This workshop explores the stories held in handmade textiles and the ways fabric was saved, repurposed, gifted, and passed down, while guiding participants in creating a small memory-cloth piece of their own. Participants are encouraged to bring their own fabric scraps from home, especially pieces that hold personal meaning, such as clothing from loved ones.
Poke Bags & Poppets
Learn the history, traditions, and varied uses of poke bags and poppets in Appalachian and broader folk practice while examining the stereotypes and misconceptions often attached to them. This hands-on workshop places these objects in their proper cultural context and guides participants in creating either a simple poke bag or poppet of their own.
Land, Water, and Place
Waters and Workings
Learn how different kinds of water are understood in Appalachian folk practice and how their qualities may be combined for specific purposes. Rather than repeating the material from Carry It to the River, this workshop focuses on selecting, pairing, and working with waters according to their source, movement, condition, and traditional associations while creating a simple water working system for your practice.
Reading and Researching the Land
Learn how to read the clues hidden in the landscape by walking the land and looking for specific conditions and clues. You’ll also learn practical research techniques to uncover the history of your property and the people who came before you.
Foraging Native Herbs and Sustainability
Learn to identify common native Appalachian plants, explore their traditional household and folk uses, and understand the importance of ethical, sustainable harvesting. This workshop emphasizes responsible stewardship, proper plant identification, conservation, and cultivating a lasting relationship with the land while honoring the knowledge passed down through generations.
Ancestors, Family & Personal Practice
Ancestor Sigil Making
Learn how to draw from your own family heritage to choose a meaningful visual language and create a personal protection sigil for yourself and your home. Participants should know, as closely as possible, where their ancestors came from—both culturally and geographically—so they can explore the traditions that may have shaped their family. For example, someone whose people came from central or northern Europe may find Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, regional Christian, or other influences within their heritage. Using what they learn, participants will design an original sigil and explore the many ways it can be used within the household and beyond it
Building an Ancestor Altar
Explore the purpose and structure of an ancestor altar, the role inherited and meaningful objects can hold within it, and the many ways ancestors may be remembered and honored in daily practice. This workshop offers cultural context, practical guidance, and space to thoughtfully shape a practice that reflects your own family and traditions.
Honoring Ancestors in Everyday Practice
Explore how ancestor care can become a continuing relationship rooted in remembrance, responsibility, and respect. This workshop considers the ways we remain connected to those who came before us while caring for their memory, resting places, and the family knowledge they left behind.