Survival: Natural Adhesives and Primitive Tool Making - Drayton Valley

When: October 7, 2025 from 10-12pm
Where: Drayton Valley - Blue Rapids Public Recreation Area

For most of human history we have learned to survive and thrive in nature using only what the wild provides. One important skill is making natural glue, or adhesive, from things like tree sap, plants, and even animal products. Once you have glue, you can make primitive tools such as spears, knives, axes and specialized tools meant for a specific task such as preparing animal skins. These are tools that early humans or wilderness explorers made by hand. A simple tool might be a sharp stone tied to a stick to make a knife or axe. 

This workshop will cover some of the traditional uses of natural adhesives before participants design and make their own tools to take home with natural glue they helped to make. Making tools and glue like this helps you understand how people lived before modern tools. It’s fun, creative, and a great way to connect with nature!

Note to parents: As both these classes require a good deal of sap/resin from conifer trees I am asking families to collect and bring resin to use in the class. This will allow for less impact on the trees where I harvest and where the class is being held. We will use the hardened, dry sap that can be found on the trunk of spruce and pines. When harvesting please do not hack at live trees or cause damage. I typically just use my fingers or a gently pry the resin off the tree. It is the trees way of protecting itself form water and insects. Over the summer and fall you can slowly collect resin to bring to class. Although I will have a supply on hand it would be great to get more to use.