Our 2027 Instructors
Please check back as we will be adding more instructors over the next weeks and months!
Tim Swanson
Event Co-Director
Kid's Trade Blanket
Trade Blanket
Archery Competition
Ax Throwing Competition
TBA
Tim Swanson is the founder and lead instructor of Owl Eyes WildernessSurvival. He holds a double Bachelor’s Degree in Adventure EducationLeadership and Adventure Therapy. He is a Level 2 Certified Animal Tracker, Wilderness First Responder, a Leave No Trace Master Educator, and a published author. Tim teaches wilderness survival and bushcraft from a connective and realistic approach. Classes with Owl Eyes Wilderness Survival are held in Massachusetts and throughout New England for all ages.
Emma Markowitz
Event Co-Director
TBA
Emma Markowitz is an instructor at Owl Eyes Wilderness Survival and the Assistant Director of TimberNook Middlesex County. Emma is a lifelong adventurer and naturalist. Growing up in the prairies outside of Chicago, her boundless energy often led to climbing trees, splashing through mud, and turning the washing machine into a rock tumbler. Embracing her spirited nature, she channeled her love for exploration into a purposeful career, earning a Bachelor's degree in Art and Visual Culture Education from the University of Arizona.
With over 15 years of experience in outdoor and progressive education, Em believes that by empowering people to take healthy risks and explore the natural world, she can help them develop the confidence and skills they need to thrive. Her teaching is infused with curiosity, patience, and a generous dose of humor.
Laura Wolfer
Event Co-Director
Women's Circle
TBA
Laura is the founder of Moose Ridge Wilderness School, and the one who said in 2018, "I think I'm going to start a gathering", without actually understanding that said gathering would take up a good portion of her life from that day forward (in a good way, of course). She went to graduate school for molecular biology, worked as a DNA scientist for a while, then a medical writer, then went to graduate school a second time to become an archaeologist (a true passion), and somewhere in between raised three kids who are now all in college. She is also a lifelong gardener, has raised just about every kind of farm animal, just started a seed company, and does a little of everything else, especially pottery, art, basketry, foraging, wood working, and herbalism. Obviously she can't settle on any one thing, but that's what keeps life interesting.
Robin Blankenship
TBA
ROBIN BLANKENSHIP owns and operates Earth Knack and has been working in the outdoor field since 1978 when she began leading horse packing trips into the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness for Adventure Unlimited Ranches, eventually directing their mountaineering program. She began teaching for Larry Olsen’s School of Urban and Wilderness Survival in 1984, the National Outdoor Leadership School and Outward Bound. She holds a B.A. in English Literature, a minor in Spanish from the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as a B.S. in Education with a Colorado elementary teaching certification. Currently she also “moonlights” as the 4th and 5th grade teacher at the Crestone Charter school, which she helped to establish in 1995. She is the author (and illustrator) of How To Play In The Woods, published in 2016 by Gibbs Smith, Publishers, and co-authored and illustrated Earth Knack Stone Age Skills for the 21st Century, also published by Gibbs Smith in 1996. Robin made a friction fire for Katie Couric on The Today Show, has been featured in publications including Outside Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Denver Post, and appeared on Channel 4 news programs in Denver featuring self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyles. All her Air b-n-b listings on the Earth Knack property are self designed and architected, hand built, homemade, alternative and eco-friendly buildings; methods that she also teaches through her Earth Knack programs.
Marie Somers
Soap
Felted Soap
Marie resides in Chester, New Hampshire with her husband and a large amount of farm animals, including sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, and silver fox rabbits. Living in a world of many passions, she is a Naturopathic Doctor who has specialized in homeopathy, herbology, and holistic medicine for 48 years. She will be teaching a class on making your own soap at home!
Bob Berg
TBA
Bob Berg of Thunderbird Atlatl (one of the world's foremost atlatl designers and producers!) has been interested in all things primitive for
the greater part of his adult life. He is skilled in many primitive and modern arts and enjoys passing his knowledge on.
Bob teaches foundational human skills and arts at schools, gatherings, universities, also at his own school in Candor, New York. Bob enjoys a few hobbies both in and outside the atlatl business,among them atlatl spear fishing, bronze casting, oil painting, violin making, bee keeping,
jewelry making and inventing mechanical devices designed to save the world.
William Ruiz
Drumming
Drum/Dance Circle
William Ruiz, a drummer and multi-instrumental percussionist, is an American Native, Indigenous mixed with Portuguese, Spanish, Taino. His career as a musician started as a freelance interstate street busker across the USA before auditioning and becoming a Music Under New York performer.
Based in New Jersey, William also spends a lot of time performing around the world.
He is a well-respected award winning artist having received the Taino award for musician of the year as well as numerous awards from the United Nations for being an ambassador of music and peace.
Ruiz has appeared for interviews/performances on CNN international news, Hot 97 radio as well as WBAI. He is known for playing Log drums, Tongue drums, the HandPan, and Hand drums while wearing his trademark Ghungroo sneaker bells/Aztec Ayoyotes ankle shakers. He also plays various other percussion instruments.
William has collaborated with many world-renowned musicians. He performs solo, with drum groups, and his 4-piece musical group. He also hosts drum assemblies, workshops, and private drum events for children through grants, nonprofits and as a freelance teacher (K – High school), adults, colleges, and corporate events throughout New York State/the five boroughs of New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
JT Stokes
Beeswax Candle Dipping
Come learn the basics of pouring & dipping beeswax candles, as well as the ~4,000 year long history of candle making. We’ll discuss crucial temperature ranges, calculating burn time, and tips for wick selection. This workshop will also include information regarding how to avoid overpaying for tools and avoiding surface blemishes. Our main focus will be dipping taper candles. We’ll talk about tips for pouring molded candles, including a single-pour method. Each attendee will dip a taper set (2 candles) of 100% beeswax.
Jillian-Taylor’s philosophy is rooted in deep ecology, preparedness, and a healthy balance of tactical and whimsical living. Her pursuits in candle making began while she still sat behind a desk at the National Wildlife Federation, dreaming of fighting the rampant tide of ecological destruction. While there she experienced her first earthskills gathering, and within two years she had left office life behind to pursue living an earth-based life.
Considering a lack of access to genuine healthcare and pesticide-free food, JT dove into pursuing foraging, foodways, agriculture, and herbal medicine, while integrating other off-grid skills. Now, one decade after her first bushcraft apprenticeship, she’s a storm worker, nomadic permaculturalist, and journeywoman of primitive life ways and traditional ecological knowledge.
Inga Sidor
Natural Dyeing
Inga is a veterinary pathologist who lives with her family in southern NH. She is a long-time knitter, spinner, and weaver, and a member of the Southeast New Hampshire Spinning Guild. Her love of gardening has also led her to exploration of natural dyes, especially those that can be grown or sustainably foraged in the Northeast. She has particular interest in using invasive or weeds species to create a broad palette of color on yarn and cloth and is always scouting ditches and roadsides for source material.
Join Inga for a hands-on dye experience, from plant to pot to final color on yarn. You'll explore the basic techniques of natural dyeing, learn about a range of plants that can be coaxed to give color, and go away with a palette of wool yarn skeins that you've hand-dyed.
Ryan Johns
TBA
Ryan Johns lives in Roxbury VT with his family of 5 and their many pets. He works as a k-8 wilderness, primitive skills, science and math educator in local independent schools. Hunting for animals, raising and processing animals for the family homestead and both growing and foraging for mushrooms with his kids are what he spends most of his free time both doing and thinking about. Ryan moved to Vermont from Colorado and brings with him knowledge of southwest primitive skills and practices and enjoys exploring and working in the northern woods. Ryan has many years of experience teaching children and adults to feel comfortable in their outdoor environment and finding out what drives their unique passions both at gatherings, in nature and in the classroom.
See you at the gathering!
Barry Keegan
TBA
Barry has taught many Earth skills since 1991: such as flint knapping, basketry, bark canoe making, fire by friction, bows and arrows, primitive fishing, survival food/water/shelter, and much more, has made or repaired 70 wigwams and longhouses of bark and thatch, and 15 dugout canoes, (one of which has been part of numerous films featuring bark and dugout canoes), fluting a point, and History Channel’s Stonehenge Archer (Mystery Quest). He also performs a rare demonstration of 9 ways to make fire by friction-back-to-back, which may be unique. He has taught at many survival schools, primitive gatherings, colleges and public schools, day camps, museum and nature centers. Barry makes replica crafts for many museums and teaching institutions, has written over 20 articles for periodicals, and assisted in writing and illustrating numerous books on primitive technology related matters.
Becky Naughton
TBA
Becky joins us with more than 25 years of combined experience in the fields of medicine, survival skills, and bushcraft. In 2002, Becky began taking survival classes at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) as a way to relax while finishing nursing school. Over time, she discovered that learning these skills helped ground her and gave her a sense of balance.
These days, Becky finds solace in the creativity and practice required to continually improve at the art of survival. (Fun fact: As of 2025, Becky has officially taken every class offered by BOSS!)
Becky is always looking for ways to expand her knowledge and deepen her understanding of the subjects that interest her. In 2025, she enrolled as a student at the School of Fashion Design in Boston, with the goal of one day launching her own line of woodswear for women. Her designs focus on traditional, durable materials and functional features, including pockets that can actually hold a cell phone and a dedicated place for your ferro rod!
Marie Somers
Soap
Felted Soap
Marie resides in Chester, New Hampshire with her husband and a large amount of farm animals, including sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, and silver fox rabbits. Living in a world of many passions, she is a Naturopathic Doctor who has specialized in homeopathy, herbology, and holistic medicine for 48 years. She will be teaching a class on making your own soap at home!