Teen Craft & Trade Intensives

Instructor: Peter Smith PC ’04
Teaching Assistant: TBD
Class Description: This week-long intensive introduces students to floor and wall framing while providing hands-on experience with power tools. With a strong emphasis on safety and teamwork, students will learn to plan, assemble, and level a floor system, as well as lay out and construct wall framing and headers. The curriculum also covers essential topics such as creating a cut list, understanding wood technology, applying basic math, and measuring for construction. Students will gain practical skills using a variety of power tools including an impact driver, sliding compound saw, table saw, drill driver, chop saw, and more.  

Students should be able to safely lift or maneuver tools and materials weighing up to 50 lbs. 

Instructor Bio: Peter is the Department Head of the Carpentry career training program and a 2004 graduate of the Preservation Carpentry program. He brings extensive industry experience from his recent role at custom building and design firm David E. Lanoue, Inc., as well as supervisory experience with NBSS interns at Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village. Additionally, Peter has a background as a camp counselor and public school teacher, enriching his approach to both instruction and mentorship.

Instructor: Ellen Kaspern CF ’03
Teaching Assistant: TBD
Class Description: In this week-long intensive workshop, students will build foundational skills essential to traditional woodworking and furniture making. Based on a modern nightstand designed by the instructor, students will gain hands-on experience with both machine and hand tools, ensuring they develop safe and comfortable practices while mastering time-tested techniques. The skills learned in this class can be applied to larger projects such as cases and tables. By the end of the course, each student will complete their very own modern nightstand.

Instructor Bio: Ellen is a custom furniture maker, a full-time Instructor in the Cabinet & Furniture Making career training program, and a 2003 graduate of NBSS. With 20 years of teaching experience, she has taught at institutions including NBSS, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Peters Valley School of Craft, Yestermorrow Design Build School, and the Florida School of Woodwork. Ellen is widely recognized for her woodworking demonstrations throughout New England and has presented at venues such as the National Museum of Industrial Industry, Boston Design Week, Boston Athenaeum, Peabody Essex Museum, Old Sturbridge Village, and the Society of Arts & Crafts. She has written articles for Fine Woodworking magazine and Woodcraft magazine, and many of her lessons are featured in instructional videos for Fine Woodworking.

Instructor: Colleen Matthews JM ’12
Teaching Assistant: TBD
Class Description: This week-long intensive will focus on the basics of jewelry fabrication and design. Students will move through a series of beginner-level projects where they will build essential jewelry making skills through sawing, filing, measuring, drilling, basic forming, and an introduction to torch soldering.

Instructor Bio: Colleen is a New England-based artist with a lifelong passion for creating and collecting objects. She studied sculpture at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she discovered her love of metalsmithing. The process of creating objects with fire seemed so alluring, an age-old art form that still was very true to its origin. After working as a woodworker, a gardener, and as a jeweler, Colleen deepened her skills in the traditional art of jewelry making by enrolling in the Jewelry Making & Repair program at NBSS. It was there she was able to fine-tune her hand skills and learn more techniques in stone setting and fabrication. Since graduating in 2012, she has worked for several jewelers in the Boston area and now maintains her own jewelry collection.

Instructor: Sophie Linnell PC ’21
Teaching Assistant: TBD
Class description: In this week-long intensive course, students will work independently and in collaboration to explore construction methods of pre-20th-century New England dwellings. Through hands-on, on-site fieldwork and live demonstrations, students will work together to raise a timber frame while learning traditional building methods such as mortise and tenon construction, historic sheathing, cladding, lime plaster application, and masonry. Besides learning important hand-building skills, students will also learn about architectural history and ideas. This knowledge will help them understand how to carefully preserve old buildings and their stories.

Instructor Bio: Sophie is a Boston-based preservation carpenter and sculptor. After earning her B.A. in Studio Art & Design, she worked for a college art program in Italy before returning to the U.S. to work as a stonemason. Sophie completed the NBSS Preservation Carpentry program and has since collaborated with Owlsworth Conservation, MLB Restorations, and Matt Diana Housewright. In addition to her extensive fieldwork, she teaches a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education courses: Architectural Design/Build, Sculptural Architecture, Historic Timber Framing, Preservation Carpentry Intensive, 3D Art & Design, Woodcarving, and Sculpture.

Instructor: Colin Urbina BB ’11
Teaching Assistant: TBD
Class Description: This week-long intensive focuses on the basics of bookbinding structure and design. Students will make some non-adhesive structures and case bindings while utilizing different sewing variations, covering, and cutting techniques using different materials, tools, and equipment to create a uniquely designed series of books.

Instructor Bio: Colin is a graduate of the NBSS Bookbinding program and runs Low Mountain Bindery in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. He has studied books since 2002 and has been a professional bookbinder since 2011. Colin is a proud graduate of Hampshire College, Simmons College’s GSLIS program, and North Bennet Street School. In addition to his formal education, he has attended workshops with many talented and innovative binders. In his shop, he makes and repairs books, crafts boxes to hold special books, and enjoys doodling in his spare time.

Cancellation requests received at least 60 days or more before the class start date will receive a full refund less a $45 cancellation fee. 

Cancellation requests received at least 30 days before the class start date will receive a 50% refund less a $45 cancellation fee. 

Refunds are not given for cancellations received less than 30 days before the class start date. 

North Bennet Street School reserves the right to cancel a class 10 days before the class start date if 50% enrollment is not met. If NBSS cancels the class a full refund will be processed.