Prin van Gulden

Faculty in Environmental Humanities

Prin van Gulden demonstrates how to spin wool into yarn.

Prin van Gulden is a homesteader and craftswoman passionate about illuminating our connections to land and humanity through traditional skills. Humans have spent thousands of years developing ecological relationships, along with skills to create beauty and utility to meet the needs of cultures. She believes the relationships we maintain with the ecological world as we re-learn to utilize the gifts of nature are as essential as the hands-on skills we regain. Prin aspires to help our culture maintain and evolve those relationships, and not to let those skills atrophy, by working in her community, with students, and by always continuing to hone her own skills and keep learning. Her practice is centered on the fiber arts, including textile & basket weaving, spinning, feltmaking and natural dyeing.

Prin lives and homesteads in Craftsbury, Vermont with her family (Four people and one big dog in a yurt). There she grows a wide range of plants for crafting, from flax (for linen), cotton, and various dye plants to broom corn and basketry willows. Prin teaches the Fiber Arts curriculum at Sterling College as well as classes and workshops in Vermont and around New England.

Prin graduated from Sterling in 2007, and returned as an adjunct instructor in 2016 before joining the faculty in 2021.

  • B.A. in Sustainable Agriculture

  • Experiential Endeavor:

    • Topics in Local Fiber Systems & Practices: Natural Dyes and Dyeing

    Intensives in Arts & Creativity:

    • HM230 Introduction to Fiber Arts

    • HM 325 Introduction to Handweaving

    • Sloyd Skills Gathering Annually co-organize this community weekend long gathering to promote everyday handcraft and traditional skills, Stannard VT.  Annually

    • Feb-ewe-ary at Slough Farm, Month long celebration of sheep and wool with workshops and events.  Edgartown, MA Annually

    • Crafts Schools Panelist, Northern New England Fibershed Roundtable, Louden NH, May 2023

    • Preparing for Shearing Day workshop sponsored by the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association and the American Sheep Industry.  Hardwick VT, March, 2022

    • Honoring Ash-An Artistic and Cultural Celebration of Ash Trees; In partnership with The Vermont Land Trust, WonderArts VT and the Orleans County Forrester. September 2019

    • Kingdom Farm and Food Days, Handspinning, Hardwick, VT 2016

    • Flax and Wool in 1800's Vermont Spring Field Days-Old Stone House Museum 2014 and 2015

    • Vermont Folklife Center Apprenticeship Master Craftsperson in Fiber Arts and Weaving 2019

    • Annual Sloyd Skills Gathering Organizer. A gathering promoting everyday handcraft and the teaching of traditional skills. Organizer and Instructor 2018-present

    • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

    • Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

    • Natural Dyes: Sources, Traditions, Technology & Science by Dominique Cardon

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