John C. Campbell Folk School opens 2027 leather class registration

John C. Campbell Folk School opened registration for its January-through-June 2027 classes on June 23 and made the new digital catalog available for immediate browsing. For leatherworkers, the headline is less about a flashy specialty track than a program that still starts with hand-stitched shoes, bags and other useful objects, then builds out into stamping, punching, burning, dyeing and other surface techniques.

That emphasis fits the way the Folk School positions leather inside a much larger studio operation. Leather and pyrography classes are taught in the Woodcarving Studio, a newly renovated space on Studio Row near the old sawmill in Brasstown, North Carolina. The school describes the building as rustic, with a covered porch and workstations set at a comfortable height for detailed work, which puts the focus where it belongs: on making clean cuts, solid seams and controlled decoration by hand.

The catalog also arrives with a clear path for different kinds of students. The most natural entry point for beginners is the leather work centered on basic construction and embellishment, where the lesson is how to build an object well before chasing specialization. Makers ready for a next step can look toward classes that fold in pyrography or other related hand skills, using the same studio environment to push beyond a single project type without losing the fundamentals.

The school says it offers more than 800 weeklong and weekend classes each year across crafts, music and other subjects, so leather is one part of a broader adult-education calendar rather than a one-off workshop menu. Tuition help is also built into the system. The Folk School offers discounts for locals, teachers, young adults, active military members and veterans, and its scholarships program gives residents of twelve surrounding counties, teachers, veterans and young adults ages 18 to 25 a 25 percent tuition discount plus guaranteed seats. A separate local-resident discount program can cut tuition by 50 percent on selected classes.

Founded in 1925 and rooted in the Danish folkehøjskole tradition, the Folk School is approaching its 100th anniversary on a scenic 270-acre campus in western North Carolina. That longevity is part of the appeal of the new leather registration: the school is still betting that serious leather education begins with core competencies, patient repetition and in-person technique, the same ingredients that have kept the craft alive there for generations.