Bill loves to share his knowledge and experiences with students of all ages. He is prepared to lecture or give lessons on a variety of local arts, history and biology.

If you would like Bill to visit your school or group please contact him at the studio by email or phone (907.235.7040)

Bill's curriculum prepared for the web now includes the Natural-History of a Piling.



Below we have posted outlines for classes:

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Drawing - This class would encompass the fundamentals of drawing, using multi-media, and subject matter.

• Students would learn how to use pencil, charcoal, conti-crayon, and pen and ink.
• They would know how to draw still life objects, in the media mentioned above, learning, perspective, elements of design, tone, texture, and contrast.
• Drawing class would take the media outside, and work on drawing, buildings, docks and structures, they would draw elements of nature, landscapes, trees, bodies of water, (ponds, lakes, and bays.
• Students would collect natural objects, clamshell, dried plants, interesting sticks, feathers, etc. and Create a sketchbook.
• Depending on the skills and interests, students could draw portraits of their pets. Learning how to draw would be a prelude to working with painting media.

Painting - This class would cover the fundamentals of painting, learning how to use pastels, watercolor, acrylic, and oil paint media.

• They would learn how to use color by making a color wheels and chart.
• They would first paint still life objects, elements of manmade origin, and elements of nature.
• They would create a sketchbook, using the objects from nature, collected for drawing class.

Drawing and painting courses would be broken into workshops. Each exercise would provide the most direct route to understanding the application of each medium, and opening their minds eye to interpret their world through art. Ceramic Arts - Hand building and figuring modeling. Students learn the properties of low fire clays, and glazes.

• The students would learn how to remove trapped air from clay bodies, by compressing wet clay they intend to work. Without the excersize of pugging the clay it will blow apart in the kiln.
• They would bisk fire their sculptures. Students will make small tiles and bisk fire them, The fired tiles would be used to paint test swabs of the Glazes they wish to use. They could then choose which color glazes they would like to use to paint their Sculptures. They would paint their sculptures, and fire them to complete the process.
• Students will learn how to hand build and sculpt clay, by making a replica of an existing object, an old shoe, glove any article from the still life objects used in other classes.
• Students hand model a fantasy figure from imagination, animal, human, or otherwise, this exercise is meant to allow the students to explore sculpting from a point of view that can only come from themselves.
• Students will hand build some sort of useful vessel, a plant pot, a nicknak bowl, a fanciful cup, the students would add some sort of figure to these vessels.
• As part of each article made, the students will learn how to carve the sculptures to create detail as clay dries, this is done during the green-ware stage, detail carving clay cannot be done while clay is to wet or too dry.

Woodworking - Students learn safety first, woodworking involves the use of sharp tools, they will discover the properties of wood, doing a series of projects. Each project will lead them to a different level of complexity,

• Make a piece of furniture out of found materials.
• Make a chair out of driftwood, twigs, using only materials found in nature.
• Learn to carve wood , students will try to find some carve-able wood like red or yellow cedar . they will start with fish, if they are successful they can try carving ducks, and native like spirit masks. I will provide wood for students unable to find their own, I will go out with them on beach and woodland collecting excursions, together we will find materials needed.
• Students interested in pursuing more complex projects, can undertake boat-building, and instrument making, I have plans for quite a few traditional native kayaks, canvas covered boats, and canoes , Instruments, would include drums, flutes, marimbas, and folk strings,(dulcimers)
• Students undertaking more complex projects, may want to work together, boat-building and dome construction are examples of projects that two or more students might want to work together. They could build them and sell them as fundraisers for school materials.
• Geodesic design and construction, students would build a simple icosahedron,, a twenty sided structure using equilateral triangles, the students could collaborate on designing and building a larger multiple frequency dome.

The projects described in this class are designed to apply to found materials, I personally designed furniture, kayaks, musical instruments, masks, ducks, and fish entirely from materials found along the beaches of the Homer Spit, and Bishops Beach. Primative Arts - Skills of the ancient cultures of Kachemak Bay.

• Flint knapping, students work with materials I have collected, gain principles, technique, and tools needed to make projectile points out of materials found along the shores of Kachemak Bay. They in turn take a field trip to the shore, to try finding useable materials make their own points.
• Woodland material gathering, students collect spruce, devils club, and birch root and make a shore fishing rig for catching halibut. Students collect birch bark, grasses and other weaving materials and make baskets to hold water, berries or any other useful device for caring, collecting, and cooking. Students collect suitable sticks and make dart shafts, and throwing boards. They can make points and replicas for display. I will furnish some fossilized whalebone to so students can make actual marine mammal hunting darts, to be used for display only. Students can make darts for spearing fish and possibly use them to fish in a dip net area like China-Poot bay.
• Food gathering and outdoor cooking, students learn what wild plants are available in our area when and where they are available and how to harvest them. They learn about inter-tidal zones, discovering the bounty the shoreline offers coastal collectors. Students use the skills to possibly catch a halibut, spear salmon, collect from the shore, tidal zone, and woodland and prepare a few meals in fire pit ovens.

The ancient kayak building class would include primitive arts, as an elective. Kayak building is an advance primitive arts curriculum. The primitive arts, is physical anthropology in action, its curriculum meant to help us better understand the ancient cultures of Kachemak Bay. Jewelry making - This class would encompass jewelry casting and limited lapidary

• Students learn about hard carving waxes, wire and sheet waxes, and soft modeling waxes, they’ll discover how to form, weld, and carve the waxes to create their jewelry models.
• Preparing finished models for burn out and pouring molten precious metals, Students learn how to sprue their jewelry models, fitting them to a sprue tree and flask in preparation to making the mold.
• Students prepare the mold or investment powder and setup, in preparation to burnout and metal pour.
• Students place their mold flasks in burnout kiln and go through the burnout process, in preparation to melting metals. Once burnout process is complete, students observe the melting and pouring.
• Students cut their cooled metal jewelry and go through the clean up, mounting stone, and assembly if required. At that point they should have finished their work.