(hammer banging) - The Michigan Folk School is a craft educational resource, which we teach vocational skills.

The classes are educational, they're fun, they're unique.

- [Stefanie] Starting a new hobby or craft can be kind of intimidating, but not here at the Michigan Folk School.

With a passionate staff of instructors, a beautiful workspace and gorgeous landscape at Staebler Farm County Park, inspiration is everywhere.

- A lot of people just find this as home and I think that energy has helped fuel our expansion and growth.

I think we have 68 instructors.

We teach over 600 classes right now on the book, ranging from cooking, leather work, blacksmithing, wilderness survival, you name it.

- [Stefanie] Michigan Folk school founders Jason, along with his wife Julia Gold, began their journey teaching others at their home, starting with chickens, raising animals and gardening.

But it didn't take long before things really began to take off.

- Within early in their relationship, they toured a lot of different folk schools and realized that this is something they want in not only the educational resource, but the community that it supports, it fosters, it creates.

Jason and Julia are both very energetic and determined individuals.

I've learned a great deal from them and they're incredible.

When they have a dream or an idea in their head, they search through every possible avenue and figure out ways to get it done.

- [Stefanie] We caught up with Jason teaching basket weaving to a full class of focused students.

Wade is also an instructor here sharing his passion for blacksmithing with others.

- I am a blacksmith jeweler and a metal worker.

I got my undergraduate degree at Northern Michigan University and then my master's at Eastern.

I do a lot of architectural blacksmithing.

I find that to work with hot metal is not only a technique, but an understanding of how it wants to move.

(hammer banging) Hot iron, it moves much like clay.

You can compress it, extrude it, expand upon it.

It's not just cutting up and welding.

So there's this whole type of relationship that you need to form with that material.

And that's where I have kind of found my passion is understanding how this metal wants to move and working with it.

- All of our instructors are top of the tier like craftsmen and they really put a lot of effort into their classes and they want to not only teach things just to, you know, make a buck or something, but they also believe in the mission here, which is passing on folk craft and folk art from generation to generation.

- [Stefanie] Those who come for a class here come from all walks of life.

In this room, a diverse group of students learn how to make sourdough bread.

Next door, some learn how to sew.

Another class that Wade says has become very popular is wilderness survival.

Now, while everyone may have their own reasons for taking a class, the experience creates a sense of community, uniting everyone who enters.

- I think what brings people in here to learn could be a variety of different things, but I would say it starts with their own interest.

Someone might have seen a TV show or a documentary and wanna try blacksmithing and they go to their computer and wonder, "Where can I find a forge or someone to do this?"

And fortunately we pop up and they research us and they come in and they're just amazed with the type of educational resource and experience that they can gather here.

And some people might just take a few classes, and I've met other people that have taken every one of our classes and go home to set up their own shop and go from there.

- [Stefanie] Anyone can sign up for a class online.

What they choose to do with the knowledge they gained, well, the possibilities are pretty endless.

- And that energized me.

And I think that's what brings a lot of people in, these hobbies that then can even become careers, life passions and eventually friendships and communities and resources.

And it's a gathering place.

We have a saying here, meet as strangers, leave us friends.

And it's really true.