About Us
Nordik Kraft continues to educate with our kit at Viking events and with classes on lucet, fiber arts, bone and horn carving and other daily aspects of Viking Daily Life. Nordik Kraft will be volunteering locally at an open air museum and regionally at museums in the Mid Atlantic working with young and old alike.
Nordik Kraft's long term goal is to be historical interpreters at L'anse aux Meadows, the Viking settlement in Newfoundland, Canada, Ken working as a carver and Cynthia with her fiber arts and cooking.
Ken Koll has been researching the Viking Age for over thirty years, in order to create his art. He has lectured and taught hands-on classes throughout that time. A constant teacher, carving roughly thirty days of the year at shows, Ken believes knowledge is to be shared. He explains his reproduction work, daily life during the viking age, tools and techniques of bone and horn carving, using hand-tools from the Middle Ages or earlier. He makes many of his tools based on specific finds.
Decades of experience working with hand-tools on natural materials, has given Ken a unique insight into material properties and capabilities. This experience has allowed Ken the opportunity to work with a few archeologists on extant bone and wood finds. His experimental archeology experience has proved valuable, adding a new perspective into our understanding the past.
Ken served in the US Army as a Military Police officer. He has been a volunteer with local civic groups, like Main Street Waynesboro, and event planning throughout his adult life. A former Scout, Ken went on to become a Scout Leader for three years. Ken has organized concert series, theater and educational events.
Ken and his tools are venturing into the realm of virtual learning with classes on carving techniques, Viking Age tool reviews, experimental archeology with reproductions of extant pieces, and lectures of daily life in the Viking Age, in order to share knowledge, encourage other carvers, and educate those interested in the Viking Age.
Cynthia Haggerty has been educating youth on historic cultures since 2009. She has been expanding her skills through experimental archeology adventures in Viking Age fiber arts, learning skills of creating cord and weaving, and food, in order to educate on daily life during the Viking Age.
Cynthia has organized multiple day educational events, and continues to do so. She has administered the entire youth program covering four states in the US for an educational non-profit for two years after four years of expanding the older youth education program. Cynthia was a Girl Scout leader for eight years and continued to serve as an administrator for an additional five years.
Cynthia is retired from the US federal government. Along the way she achieved a Master of Library and Information Science degree. Cynthia currently manages the administrative side of Nordik Kraft, aside from her experimental archeology efforts and teaching.
