Craft Days

Craft Days

Every fall, we organize Craft Days to highlight the craft tradition and its transmitted skills as part of both a traditional and living intangible cultural heritage. Welcome on Saturdays and Sundays from September 7 to 22!

Here, you can experience historical craftsmanship, building preservation, handcrafts, and textile arts – elements that are recognizable in many contemporary craft processes. Stroll through the Town quarter to explore and try out traditional craft techniques, join an educational guide tour, and enjoy Sami contemporary art in Ekshäradsgården and the exhibition Vuoi ihán.

Cultural-historical Crafts

Experience our authentic craft environments at Skansen, where crafts from different historical periods come to life. Here, you will meet skilled craftsmen who demonstrate and discuss their craft through the ages. Watch them at work, learn about the tools, techniques, and materials used, discover what was created, and find out who worked here.

The bourgeoisie is an association of skilled craftsmen dedicated to preserving tradition in Skansen’s cultural-historical environments. Through their efforts, knowledge of historical crafts is kept alive and passed on to new generations.

Printer's workshop

10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
The art of printing books was a revolutionary invention when it emerged in the 15th century. At the Printer’s workshop, you can experience the craft as it looked in the 1840s.
Bookbindery

10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Producing a book required a lot of work, there were many steps involved, and everything was done by hand using various tools. Meet skilled bookbinders who will explain and demonstrate different methods.
Cabinetwork

Furniture factory
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Gain insight into the furniture industry with handcrafted production of high-quality furniture! Here you’ll find machines and workshop equipment from carpentry factories dating from the turn of the last century to the 1930s.
Workshop mechanic

Engineering workshop
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
A tangle of belts runs along the ceiling, supplying power to the workshop’s machines. Step inside and explore the daily life of a Workshop mechanic, the history of industry, and the rise of the labor movement in the 1920s.
Boatbuilder

Offerholmen
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Meet boatbuilders from Skeppsholmen Folk High School who demonstrate the unique craft of clinker-built boats.
Tanning

Tannery Farmstead
September 14, 15, 21, 22, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
See how leather is traditionally tanned using bark, a common method before the industrial development that introduced chemical processes.
Engraving

Engraver’s workshop
September 14 and 15, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Engraving has been used to decorate art and everyday objects for a very long time. Here, you can see this intricate work as it might have looked in the late 19th century.
Gold- and silversmithing

Gold- and Silversmith’s workshop
September 14, 15, 21, 22, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Gustaf Möllenborg’s workshop from the 1850s has served as the foundation for the smithy. His workshop on Drottninggatan in Stockholm was one of the most renowned in Sweden. Here, the gold and silversmith’s work to create functional items and beautiful decorations.
The Silver press

September 14 and 15,
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
On the ground floor of the Gold- and Silversmith’s workshop, you’ll find the large silver press, which made it more efficient and cost-effective to produce large quantities of functional items such as cutlery.
Sheet metal work

Tinsmith’s workshop
September 7, 8, 21, 22, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
This workshop showcases how things looked in the 1920s when working with building sheet metal, decorative copper work, and household items like buckets and lanterns, which were the specialty of tin smiths.
Shoemaker's workshop

September 7, 8, 21, 22, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Here, you can see how a Shoemaker’s workshop might have been equipped in the 1870s. Shoemaker’s, along with tailors, were for a long time the largest trades among craftsmen in the cities.
Ironwork

Smithy
September 7, 8, 14, 15, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
A smaller smithy from Uppland, where it served as a farm smithy in the 1890s. Here, smaller smithing tasks for household needs were carried out, such as making locks, fittings, hinges, and door bolts.
Furniture upholstery

Upholsterer’s Workshop
September 7, 8, 14, 15, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Experience what work might have looked like in an upholsterer’s workshop around the turn of the 20th century, where the main tasks included reupholstering, repairing frames, and re-padding furniture.

Exhibition: Vuoi ihán – Sami Contemporary Art

The exhibition Vuoi ihán depicts stories from a contemporary and enlightened future where history is always present. Through the works of six artists, the Sami diversity, often overlooked and simplified, takes a self-evident and vital place. “Vuoi ihán” is displayed on weekends from September 7 to October 27, 2024, at Ekshäradsgården at Skansen.

Try on activities

Get your hands working too! Try on techniques, materials, and tools, and learn about the traditions of various crafts.

Paste marbling

Every weekend

Stop by the Book Printing House and try paste marbling, a technique used to create beautiful, decorative patterns on book endpapers and covers.
Old tools

Every weekend

Outside the Hardware store, the ironmongers stand with old tools that you can try out and learn more about.
Linen Preparation with Linodlarföreningen

Tingsvallen, September 14–15

Linodlarföreningen from Fransåker demonstrates and explains traditional flax preparation methods. If you have grown 1 square meter of flax and have had time to rett it, feel free to bring it to Skansen over the weekend. You can then break, scutch, and hackle the flax fiber using Skansen's tools under our guidance. No pre-registration is needed; first come, first served. Please remember that the flax must be dry to be processed.
Laundering and Flax Bast with Skansens byalag

Tingsvallen, September 7–8

Meet Skansen’s byalag, experts in the work and crafts of earlier times. On September 7–8, we will be making soap and laundering linen and cotton using birch ash and soap. On September 14–15, we'll discuss harvested flax bast and what can be made from it: ropes, cords, and bracelets.