Couple set to open Maine Coast Craft School

As Drew and Louise Langsner wind down 40 years of teaching and boarding guests at their school, Country Workshops in Marshall, N.C., their friends Kenneth and Angela Kortemeier are creating a traditional woodworking school in Bristol, Maine.

The Kortemeiers have scheduled a late-July opening for the Maine Coast Craft School, specializing in hand-tool use. Most classes will have about four students.

“We are modeling our school after Country Workshops in a lot of ways with both the school and the business aspect of it. Drew is just a really smart and organized person. He is a main adviser to us. We really like how he and Louise created their business and their school,” Angela Kortemeier says.

Kenneth Kortemeier will be the primary instructor. His experience includes furniture making, boatbuilding and restoration carpentry. He interned at Country Workshops in the 1990s and apprenticed with Welsh chairmaker John Brown. He has also worked and taught classes at the Carpenter’s Boat Shop in Pemaquid, Maine, for more than 10 years.

The Kortemeiers considered locating their school at Country Workshops, but decided on Maine for its amenities.

“Here it’s only 10 minutes to a grocery store and not 40 minutes down a steep mountain. The first year we won’t be doing lodging, but some of our neighbors are doing B&Bs for students and I’ll be cooking lunch for people,” Angela Kortemeier says.

The school, built with reclaimed lumber, will use solar power for lights and firewood for heat. The first project classes will cover ladderback and Welsh Windsor stick chairs, wheelbarrows and bowl carving.

For more, visit www.mainecoastcraft.com.

This article originally appeared in the May 2017 issue.