Did you ever wonder exactly how a blacksmith makes a horseshoe?

Or how to serve English tea properly?

Are you interested in natural fabric dyes, rug making or quilting?

Those topics and others will be the focus of a school set to open June 11 in Butler County.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Dr. Carl Robertson demonstrates woodworking techniques using an ax. Dr. Robertson will teach a variety of classes at the Heritage School during the summer and fall beginning in June, including making buckets, rakes and hayforks, wheelbarrows and restoring a hay wagon. Click photo for larger image.

The Heritage School at the Conservancy will teach traditional folk arts, such as blacksmithing, woodworking, gardening and fiber arts. It will be at Butler County Community College's Succop Conservancy in Penn.

The school is based on the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina and is believed to be the first of its kind in Western Pennsylvania.

The North Carolina school uses local heritage and history to create a program for adults that focuses on crafts, arts, music, dancing, cooking, gardening, nature studies, photography and writing.

"Our focus is going to be on Western Pennsylvania history, conservancy and stewardship," said Nancy Lawry, conservancy director. The school is a partnership of the community college and the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau.

Laura Kacy will teach a course on tea and social graces, a very English, very turn-of-the-19th-century course.

Those who take her weeklong class will learn about the history and etiquette of English-style afternoon tea, how to make tea and how to make tea-time snacks.

"I'll try to introduce a number of teas people have never tried," she said. "There's so much to learn about tea and so many of them."

Students also learn about hats and bonnets through the ages and the art of conversation, both listening and talking. For this portion of the class, no modern technology will be allowed.

"This is a technology-free zone," Ms. Kacy said. "We'll be getting back to written correspondence. It's really sad, because technology really is replacing proper grammar and writing styles."

Ms. Kacy, of the Sarver section of Buffalo, owns Home Is Where The Tea Is, a "bring-it-to-your-home" tea service she has operated for two years.

Other course topics at the Heritage School include writing and illustrating, canvas floor cloths, folk art painting, glass mosaics, Civil War quilting, beginning banjo, traditional stone masonry, herbs, landscaping, 18th century writing, model railroading, natural dyes, wild teas, traditional woodcarving, wood relief carving, woodworking, poetry in nature, storytelling, native dolls, traditional native-style drum, stained glass, American Indian crafts and cultural courses, and felt rug making.

The courses are for adult enrichment and no credits or degrees will be awarded, Ms. Lawry said.

Classes will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, including time in the morning for students to spend on the conservancy grounds, a daily catered lunch and an afternoon social time.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Instructor Ryan Stauffer demonstrates blacksmithing in the blacksmith shop at the conservancy. The newly renovated building had been a chicken coop. Click photo for larger image.

The cost is $360 to $390 per course per week.

Evening events and shorter courses in the evenings and on weekends will be added later, Ms. Lawry said.

The school is a perfect mix of "part vacation, part class," said Patti Jo Lambert, spokeswoman for the tourism bureau.

"This is really going to be a great asset to the entire Pittsburgh region," she said. "We can look at this as not just a community college course, but a tourist attraction for people who not only want to relax, but learn."

The school has been in the works for two years. Organizers sought advice from the director of the John C. Campbell Folk School, who gave their plans a thumbs up and said the 50-acre Succop Conservancy was an ideal site for the program. The property contains a main house and several buildings.

"Ultimately, we hope to become a tourist location, much like the Campbell Folk School," Ms. Lawry said.

For information or to register, visit www.bc3.edu and click on the Succop Conservancy link, or call the conservancy at 724-586-2591.