About Craftfolk Collective
Craftfolk Collective is a gathering place for creative community in the Sierra Foothills. Located in the heart of historic Colfax, we are an intentional kind of craft school rooted in local connection, lifelong learning, and the joy of making by hand. We bring people together to learn, make, and connect through hands-on workshops that keep traditional crafts and skills alive. Our space offers a warm, welcoming place to slow down, work with your hands, and share creativity with others. We believe the best learning happens side by side at shared tables, where community grows as naturally as the crafts themselves.
Our Purpose
We exist to nurture creativity, connection, and community resilience through the shared act of making. Craftfolk Collective is an adult learning space that honors traditional skills while celebrating contemporary creativity, and we believe that learning is a lifelong practice. Our aim is simple: bring people together, create with purpose, and build a place where everyone belongs.
We exist to nurture creativity, connection, and community resilience through the shared act of making.
Who We Serve
We welcome people of all backgrounds who find joy in working with their hands. Craftfolk Collective is built for curious makers of all experience levels and abilities. If you value process over perfection and connection over consumption, you’ll feel right at home here.
We offer weekend and evening craft workshops, free community craft nights, seasonal creative events, and creative resources - all in a warm and inclusive space. Most of our classes are designed for adults, with occasional offerings for families.
We believe that craft is a lifelong exploration that enriches lives and creativity is most powerful when shared.
About Our Founder
Craftfolk Collective was founded by Gretchen Hilyard Boyce, a historian, multidisciplinary craftsperson, musician, and community builder who has spent her career exploring the connections between people, place, and craft. Through her work in cultural landscape preservation, Gretchen has seen firsthand how communities are shaped by the skills they practice, the stories they share, and the spaces where people come together to learn.
Craft has always been part of her life. From knitting and natural dyeing to herbal medicine and soap making, Gretchen is drawn to the quiet satisfaction of learning something slowly and with intention. After moving to Colfax, she began imagining a welcoming, people-centered craft school rooted in place and shaped by local relationships, free from the noise of social media. A place where learning happens side by side, where craft is honored as both tradition and creative exploration, and where community grows naturally around shared interests.
Craftfolk Collective is the realization of that vision. Gretchen brings to the school her grounding in cultural history, her lifelong love of making, and her belief that creativity is most powerful when shared. Her hope is that the school becomes a place where people can gather, work with their hands, and strengthen the community around them.
What we offer
Weekend and evening craft workshops, free community craft nights, seasonal creative events, and creative resources - all in a warm and inclusive space.