Half-year course
Historical handicraft
(half-year course fall 2025)
You'll get to work on traditional crafts such as forging, lacemaking and needle binding. We make tools, sew and do woodcarving. Teaching takes place in unique surroundings in the workshops at the medieval farm Stiklastadir. We go on a study trip in the Nordic region.
Collaboration with Stiklestad National Cultural Center
Collaboration with Stiklestad National Cultural Center medieval farm Stiklastadir , both in the longhouse, outside, and in the various workshops.
We go out into the forest and learn to find materials that we can shape into useful objects. We learn how to make our own tools, which we can use in further crafts. We'll try our hand at old textile techniques, such as hand spinning and plant dyeing of yarn. We'll also stay in the longhouse, where you'll really get a taste of what it was like to live in the Middle Ages.
Broad expertise
Over the course of the semester, you'll get a taste of the different techniques and materials. The teachers, Øystein and Kristin, are skilled in several fields within Historical handicraft, such as textiles and leather, carpentry, forging and woodworking. "Knowledge of tools and materials is important. We work practically, and learn by failing and succeeding.
Photographer: Eric Roy Brandvik-Hansen, Sofie Røssland Berrefjord and students at the course.
More about the course
This is what we will do:
- work with axes, needles and other old hand tools
- Forge knife blades and other tools in an old-fashioned forge
- make your own objects in leather, wool and other natural textiles
- find the right materials in nature
- learn lafting and other construction techniques with an axe
- community trips and outdoor activities
- spend the night, cook and shoot with bow and arrow at the medieval farm Stiklastadir
Who is the line suitable for?
Historical handicraft is suitable for anyone who likes to do hands-on work. You don't need to have any craft experience to apply, we just expect you to be interested and open to learning.
Study tour in the Nordics
We are on a study trip for about two weeks. During the trip, we'll get to try our hand at different craft techniques and we'll meet young and old craftsmen who keep old craft traditions alive. We visit exciting places where we get to go "behind the scenes" thanks to good contacts with people and institutions around the Nordic region that work with Historical handicraft. Examples of places we can visit are the workshops in Nidaros Cathedral, craft education in Rauland, the Bygdøy Museum in Oslo and the huge royal hall from the Viking Age in Roskilde, Denmark. And, of course, we'll also enjoy a trip together and explore new places.
Good professional content
On a trip, you get the opportunity to try something you haven't tried before, be inspired and, not least, get to know new places. Sund folk high school is committed to having good content and a professional program on the study trips. We focus on environmentally friendly travel, and therefore do not fly, but travel by train or bus.
Here you can watch the video student Hedda Lan Vøllestad made from her study trip in Norway, Germany and Denmark in the spring semester 2020:
Øystein is a craftsman and museum educator at Stiklestad National Cultural Center. He is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to crafts, and is passionate about recycling and using natural materials. He makes the most beautiful and the strangest things, from the bones left over from dinner to the leather remnants of his old sofa. He also has a love for bow making, knife making and edible plants. Øystein is the main subject teacher at Historical handicraft. Textile craftswoman Gunhild and woodcarver Kai, who also works at Stiklestad, also teach at the course.
Kristin has worked at Sund since 2010, and is a positive and wise lady with a commitment to the folk high school. She loves needle weaving, needlepoint and giving old objects a new life. She has a newfound interest in plant dyeing. Otherwise, she is a down-to-earth person who likes to learn new things. Kristin is a line teacher at Historical handicraft.
- When I started at Historical handicraft I had very little experience with crafts. But I quickly learned that it didn't really matter how much prior knowledge you had as long as you wanted to learn and found it fun to work with your hands. So I would say that the most important thing I learned at Historical handicraft was not necessarily how to make all the different wonderful things we learn to make, but how fun and useful it is to be able to use our hands to utilize the nature around us.
Malin Johansen Trondsen
Historical handicraft 2021Students' annual plan Sund folk high school 2024-2025
The last day of the 2024-25 school year is Thursday, May 16, 2025.
Half-year course fall 2025
NOK 68 000,-
School fees include:
- Accommodation in a double room at Sund fhs
- All food at Sund fhs (four meals per day) - we don't charge extra for special diets, vegetarian or vegan food
- The study trip - academic program, accommodation, food and transportation are included
- Joint school trips and excursions
- Wireless internet, copying and printing for teaching
- Use of gym, training room, rehearsal room, photo studio, darkroom
- Use of washing machines and dryers
- Expenses for the vast majority of electives
- Transport in connection with training
- Administration fee at NOK 1 250,-
All lessons are free of charge.
School fees are not included:
The materials we use for teaching are included. However, if you want to make something different/more/larger than what the teacher has planned, you must expect to pay for the extra equipment yourself.
- Deposit for key and use of equipment at NOK 1 300,-
- Single room supplement at NOK. 585,- per month for 5 months
- Pocket money for personal consumption
Loans and grants from Lånekassen
As a student on half-year courses (half-year lines) at Sund folk high school , you are entitled to study support from the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund (if you are a Norwegian citizen). In the school year 2024-2025, you will receive a total of NOK 68,950 in grants and loans from the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund. Of this, 40%, i.e. NOK 27,580, will be converted into a grant once you have completed the academic year and had it approved.
Read more about loans and grants atwww.lanekassen.no.
As soon as you have a place on Sund folk high school , you can apply for grants and loans atwww.lanekassen.no.
We don't have an application deadline and you can apply all year round. We begin admissions from November 15 (for the school year beginning the following fall), and admit students as long as there is room at the course.
Admission criteria:
- Age limit 18 years, exceptionally 18 years before the study trip
- We accept students as long as there is room on the course you apply
- We focus on motivation and interests
Application:
- Send an online application
- We'll get back to you as soon as we can
- Write a little about yourself and why you want to join Sund
- It's a good idea to apply early, even if we don't start admissions until November 15 (for the school year beginning the following fall).
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Try our questions and answers page (FAQ)
Do you have any questions? Feel free to contact us '