Naiome Krienke has a really good reason for wanting to learn to carve, and she knew just the place to go: The Port Townsend School of Woodworking at Fort Worden State Park.

“I’m really excited because I want to learn to carve and I want to teach my children and family how,” explained Krienke, who said she considers herself to be a “mixed blood tribal person.”

She signed up for a woodworking workshop on traditional craftsmanship in a contemporary context at the school, founded in 2007.  Woodworking classes range from beginning foundations to tools and chair-making, with a larger mission to create a more diverse and inclusive woodworking community.

For Krienke, it meant learning to use a carving tool, which she skillfully put to work on a block of wood.  By April 19, the end of her one-week workshop, her Nuu-Chah Nulth style indigenous mask had taken form.

Brian Perry, the workshop instructor, said the masks students carve are portrait masks, and they can be whatever you want them to be. “It symbolizes different things to different people. I’ve heard them called ancestor masks, or friendship masks,” Perry said.

Heron Scott, executive director of the school, said they operate year-round depending on what track students want to take.

“We’ve been offering indigenous type carving content for a while,” said Scott. “We recently decided to create a big emphasis of what we want to offer.”

He added that a certain amount of the class projects are based on the tradition and culture of the instructor, who can then pass those techniques on. 

For example, Perry is Port Gamble S’Klallam, so he teaches broadly in a Coast Salish style, said Scott.  “We’re really pleased folks like Naiome, who is indigenous, come and want to participate.”

He said the support of the Port Townsend community is important, because it values unique work.