What it is

EFMLS Wildacres Workshop is the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Societies (EFMLS) week-long residential workshop held at Wildacres Retreat in the North Carolina mountains near Little Switzerland. The official EFMLS Wildacres page frames continuous spring workshop weeks since 1973, with class tuition plus room and board in one package, sponsored in part by the Wildacres Blumenthal Foundation. It is not the Southeast Federation (SFMS) Wildacres weeks already listed separately on Lapidary Plaza, not a membership club with monthly meetings as its primary identity, and not a retail lapidary supply shop.

Who it’s for

Adults who are members of an AFMS-affiliated gem and mineral society and want an immersive spring week of lapidary and jewelry classes on the mountain — cabbing, faceting, intarsia/silversmithing, wire-wrapping, fused glass, PMC, carving, and related media — plus speaker-in-residence programs. Registration is limited to AFMS-affiliated club members; registration for the next published session opens on a printed January 1 date on the Wildacres page.

Why it’s listed

This is a first-party Eastern Federation workshop program with printed session dates, a published tuition+room+meals dollar figure, a class/instructor roster (cabbing/faceting/inlay-adjacent and related crafts), and a Wildacres campus identity — Workshops category, not Clubs and not Suppliers. Distinct listing from SFMS Workshops at Wildacres (sfms-workshops-wildacres), which is the Southeast Federation’s separate summer/fall Wildacres weeks.

Next published session (Wildacres home — checked 2026-09-21): May 10–16, 2027. Week starts Monday afternoon with dinner and finishes Sunday morning after breakfast. (The 2026 spring week has already passed; the live page promotes 2027.)
Package price (Wildacres home — checked today): $540 for the week of classes, room, and board for 2027 (double-occupancy framing historically; confirm live registration materials). Copy notes the package is subsidized by the Wildacres Blumenthal Foundation. Additional class material fees are separate (scholarships cover tuition+room+board only, not materials/travel).
Registration gate (Wildacres home — checked today): must be a member of any gem and mineral society affiliated with the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS) to register. Registration opens January 1, 2027. Spring 2027 registration form marked TBA on the page.
2027 class / instructor roster (Wildacres home + Wildacres Classes — checked today): Cabbing (Rick Marshall); Faceting (Bernie Emery); Fused Glass (Carol Zodrow); Geology (Dr. Mike Wise); Intarsia or Silversmithing (Chuck Bruce); Mines, Mining Museums & Gemstones of the West (Helen Serras-Herman); PMC Brass & Copper (Susan Brooks); Soapstone Carving (Ken Volko); Wire-Wrapping (Jackie Campbell). Wildacres Classes: all classes are now 4-day classes. Instructor bios and materials/fees “announced soon” on check date.
Structure note (Wildacres Classes — checked today): Wildacres is broken into two semesters within the week (registration day; two days first semester; activity day; two days second semester; Sunday breakfast close) — confirm live Classes page for the year you attend.
Contacts printed on Wildacres Classes (checked today): Workshop Chairman Helen Serras-Herman; Workshop Director Tim Morgan; Workshop Registrar John Sweeney. Speaker-in-Residence for 2027 announced on the Wildacres home as Claire Scragg, FGA DGA GG, and Eric Fritz, FGA DGA. Carolyn Weinberger Memorial Wildacres Scholarship: two tuition+room+board awards for 2027 (materials/travel not covered).

Session dates, package dollars, class seats, and material fees above are what the official EFMLS pages showed on the check date. Catalog and fees change by year. Confirm the live Wildacres and Wildacres Classes pages (and the registration form when posted) before treating any figure as fixed.

Official URL

https://efmls.org/wildacres/

Wildacres Classes: https://efmls.org/wildacres/wildacres-classes/

Speaker-in-Residence: https://efmls.org/wildacres/speaker-in-residence/

EFMLS home: https://efmls.org/

Location

Wildacres Retreat — North Carolina mountains near Little Switzerland, NC (Blue Ridge / Pompey’s Knob area as commonly framed for Wildacres programs). Exact lodging assignment and driving directions: confirm on Wildacres Retreat materials linked from EFMLS when registering.

This is a residential workshop / class campus address for a week-long federation curriculum, not a jewelry retail counter and not a monthly gem-club meeting hall.

Notes

Category is Workshops. Week-long Eastern Federation teaching week with published lodging/tuition package and a lapidary/jewelry class catalog. Not a Clubs membership gem society and not a Suppliers equipment/rough shop.
Distinct from SFMS Workshops at Wildacres (Southeast Federation; separate listing / separate weeks). Do not merge the two federations’ Wildacres programs.
2027 dates May 10–16 and $540 package are transcribed from official EFMLS Wildacres pages checked on 2026-09-21 and may change. A prior 2026 spring week (May 11–17, 2026 / $525 in earlier first-party copy) is no longer the live featured session as of the check date.
Optional logo not saved (EFMLS media CDN returned a block page to automated fetch on the check date; no stable first-party badge filed beside this listing).
Not affiliated with Lapidary Plaza.
No Lapidary Plaza contact, purchase, booking, or publication action was taken.

FAQ

Q: What does EFMLS Wildacres cost for the next published week?
A: Wildacres home (checked 2026-09-21): $540 for the 2027 week of classes, room, and board. Class material fees are separate. Confirm live price and the registration form when posted.

Q: When is the next session, and who can register?
A: May 10–16, 2027 (Monday dinner through Sunday breakfast). AFMS-affiliated club membership required. Registration opens January 1, 2027 per the live Wildacres page.

Q: Is this the same as SFMS Wildacres already on Lapidary Plaza?
A: No. This is the Eastern Federation (EFMLS) Wildacres Workshop. SFMS Workshops at Wildacres is the Southeast Federation program with its own weeks and costs. Both use the Wildacres Retreat campus but are separate federation workshops — listed separately under Workshops.