Folk School Instructors

Ginger Alberti

Ginger Alberti teaches the art of sewing on antique hand crank (pre-electric) sewing machines at Sew Cranky in Hancock. She creates her own patterns from ideas drawn from her love of the outdoors, folklore, and fun. She enjoys the challenge of trying to utilize repurposed fabrics when possible. Teaching the art of sewing to both young and old, the words Ginger finds most rewarding are, “Oh! I can do this!”

Phyllis Fredendall

Born in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Phyllis Fredendall was professor emerita of Fiber and Fashion Design at Finlandia University’s International School of Art and Design in Hancock, Michigan and is former director of the Finnish American Folk School.  Since 1993 she has taught weaving, spinning, felt-making and off-loom structures; garment design; jacquard design using CAD software; dyeing and printing; and two- and three- dimensional design fundamentals. Phyllis studied weaving in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, California and British Columbia; garment design in New York City; and felt making and printing and dyeing in Finland.  She served as visiting lecturer in Finland, Estonia, and Canada and has enjoyed artist residencies on Isle Royale National Park, Xanadu in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, and at the Huopakeskus (felt center) in Petäjävesi, Finland.   Her work has been exhibited in the US, Canada, and Finland. Phyllis has traveled extensively in Finland studying traditional textiles wherever possible.  In 2023 she was a recipient of an American Scandinavian Foundation Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions fellowship to study and practice traditional weaving techniques and study models for folk schooling and weaving centers in Finland.

Kenyon Hansen

Kenyon Hansen is a full-time studio potter and educator in the Keweenaw Peninsula. He has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.  In 2013 he was selected as an Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly. Kenyon has taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, and Greenwich House Pottery in New York City. He has led workshops at numerous universities and art centers throughout the country.  His pottery has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in homes all over the world. Solo shows include Jane Hartsook Gallery, Schaller Gallery, Morean Center for Clay, Red Lodge Clay Center & CLAY AKAR.

Poppy Hatinger

Poppy Hatinger has been making baskets since 1985, focusing on willow basketry including growing and harvesting willow since 1990. This work with willow combines her love of both weaving and gardening. She has studied willow techniques with German, English, Welsh, Danish, Spanish, and American teachers. Her style combines traditional functional techniques with experimentation in more sculptural art pieces using willow in garden structures. Poppy’s work has been selected for the National Basketry Organization’s juried show All Things Considered and her work has received awards from the Association of Michigan Basket Weavers. She has been spreading her love of willow through presentations to gardening groups for the past 15 years, presenting to the Delta County Master Gardeners, the Upper Peninsula Master Gardeners and teaching classes for the Porcupine Mountain Folk School and the Association of Michigan Basket Weavers.

Lindsey Heiden

Lindsey Heiden is originally from Illinois. She earned a BFA in painting from Western Illinois University, along with a BA in Spanish. She also holds an MFA with an emphasis in ceramics from the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville. Heiden has participated in residencies including at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally. Heiden has work in the permanent collections of the Archie Bray Foundation and DeVos Art Museum, Bay College, as well as in private collections.

Rick Loduha

A professional designer since 1972 and design educator since 1990, Rick Loduha researches sustainable design strategies and has taught sustainable design at the University of Illinois, the University of Louisiana, and Finlandia University. In 1996-97 he headed a sustainable development project in Haiti, W.I. and his sustainable design work has been published internationally.

Alice Margerum

Alice Margerum has been handcrafting carefully-researched reconstructions of musical instruments for more than 20 years. In 2010, she received a PhD in Historical Musicology from London Metropolitan University. Although she primarily makes medieval stringed instruments, most notably harps, Dr. Margerum has recently been doing research into Nordic and Baltic-region bowed lyres and Finnish brass-strung kanteles. In 2016, as a practical part of this research (and thanks to a grant from Finlandia Foundation National), Dr. Margerum went to the Ilomantsin kanteleleiri & soitinrakennuskurssi (the Ilomantsi kantele camp and instrument building course) to learn the essentials of making and playing the traditional Finnish bowed lyre, the jouhikko. Subsequently, she gave a course in jouhikko making at the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College and a jouhikko-building weekend at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock, MI. In the summer of 2023 (thanks to a grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation), Dr. Margerum worked with Dr. Rauno Nieminen, the world expert in bowed-lyre making with more than 45 years of experience and examined several 19th-century bowed lyres and brass-strung kanteles in museums. Dr. Margerum looks forward to building instruments informed by this recent research.

Kay Seppala

Karen Tembreull

Karen Tembreull is a fiber artist focused on basketry, with her medium derived primarily from her environment. Her work combines traditional basketry applications with other historical fiber arts and metalworking techniques such as piecework, lace making, and fabrication. Her basketry forms are a celebration of the harmony that is intertwined between these materials and traditional methods.
Karen has been learning basketry since the 1980s and teaching since the early 1990s. Teaching has continued to be a primary focus, and she has been an instructor at conferences and guilds nationwide, with her work featured in multiple publications. She has work included in the MSU Heritage Program traveling exhibit archives and recently wove a lifetime achievement award for willow basket maker and teacher Joanna Schanz.

Lisa Wiitala

With a BA in biological sciences and an MA in secondary education, Lisa Wiitala taught high school science for many years before taking up weaving. As a fourth generation Finnish American, she was inspired to learn after acquiring her grandmother’s old floor loom. In keeping with her family history, her initial focus was rag rugs, later making the shift to ryijy. She has demonstrated for events including Heikinpäivä, FinnFest USA, and the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Scandinavia Day, and has studied advanced ryijy design and weaving in Finland.

Clare Zuraw

Clare Zuraw is a musician, fiber artist, and teacher based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Clare holds an MS in Teaching & Curriculum and is the director of the Finnish American Folk School. She works with a wide range of traditional fiber arts including weaving, knitting, spinning, and natural dyeing. In 2023 she was a recipient of a Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, studying natural dyeing with Dawn Andersson of Calumet. Clare is also a musician focusing on traditional American and Finnish music. She performs and teaches piano, hammered dulcimer, and jouhikko. In 2016, with support from the Finlandia Foundation, Zuraw began studying the jouhikko with Ilkka Heinonen of Helsinki and in 2019 with funding from the American Scandinavian Foundation, she traveled to Finland to study the instrument with six jouhikko masters. Clare has performed and taught jouhikko at Finnish American venues in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Minnesota, Michigan, and online.