A Summer of Antler
This summer we took ancient antler craft to two new festival venues — the Family Field at Wilderness and the Workshop Zone at Green Man.
Armed with naturally shed antler, hand tools and plenty of archaeology, we invited festival-goers of all ages to sit down, make something wild and discover a craft that stretches back thousands of years.
And they did — in their hundreds!
What we particularly loved was seeing people making together: children and parents, friends and families sharing tools, ideas and skills, helping each other and proudly heading off with something they had made themselves.
Two very different festivals, two fantastic experiences — and a lot of antler dust.
Wilderness Festival – Family Field
Our first stop was Wilderness and our first visit to the Family Field.
For one very busy day our tent became a hive of making, conversation and creativity. Around 70 people worked with us, shaping, smoothing and decorating naturally shed red deer antler — and everyone left with a finished object.
One of the joys of the day was seeing families working together. Parents didn’t just watch: many picked up tools themselves, shared skills with their children and made their own objects alongside them.
There was archaeology too, of course. Antler opened up conversations about deer, ancient objects, materials, landscapes and the thousands of years of knowledge behind the craft.
Green Man – Workshop Zone
Then it was home to Wales and Green Man — a festival we know and love, but this time in a completely new guise.
After many years of bringing archaeology and science to Einstein’s Garden, in 2026 we moved into the Workshop Zone and spent four glorious days doing what we do best: making, talking, experimenting and sharing skills.
Festival-goers transformed pieces of naturally shed antler into rings, pendants, charms, keyrings and other creations, using simple hand tools and techniques inspired by the archaeological objects we study.
Some people came knowing exactly what they wanted to make. Others arrived simply curious about the antler on the table. All became part of the conversation about craft, archaeology, deer and our changing relationships with the wild.
Four days, many makers and an extraordinary variety of finished objects.
Making Something Wild
Our antler workshops began as experimental archaeology: exploring ancient objects by learning how people actually made them. Over more than a decade, they’ve grown into something much bigger.
And this year we’ve been particularly delighted to see the skills continuing to flourish in the Western Isles. Workshops at Cothrom and elsewhere are now being run by island makers themselves — sharing the skills locally with new generations of antler workers.
That’s exactly what we hoped Craftwork would achieve: skills learned, shared and passed on within the communities whose archaeology inspired the project in the first place.
We’ve also been thinking carefully about the material we use elsewhere. The antler we took to Wilderness and Green Man this summer came not from the islands, but from surplus stock sourced from a traditional Sheffield cutler. It was material beyond their own requirements that we could put back to work.
That means the naturally shed antler of the Western Isles can stay in the islands, available to the local makers who are developing their own craft, products and workshops.
So perhaps our summer wasn’t just about making things from antler after all. It was about materials, people and skills finding the right homes — from the Western Isles to Wilderness and Green Man.
And judging by the makers, conversations, laughter and considerable quantities of antler dust, those ancient skills are very much alive.
Here’s to keeping them that way.
Guerilla Archaeology 