I've been away most of May and prior to that I was so busy making samples, preparing handouts, for the three very different workshops and compiling information for the first eco printing workshop that I taught.
I arrived in Washington, DC, on April 30, and was whisked to stay with my 91 year old Mom (soon to be 92) in Silver Spring. Usually when you travel and teach, the host arranges accommodations but Artistic Artifacts, in Alexandria, Virginia, is so close to where my Mom lives, that I could not be so close and not stay with her. I struggled with the arrangements as unless you've ever lived in the DC/MD/VA metro area, you really have no idea what you are dealing with when it comes to traffic and I wondered how on earth I'd get from point A (my Mom's) to point B (Alexendria, VA) for 5 days of workshops. In any event, my friend Pat kindly came to my rescue (as she has done so often before) and transported me to and fro daily; we had such a great time in the car and had a chance to really catch up.
The eco printing workshop was fun and we had so many supplies to play and experiment with, but one day was not enough time to do it all especially when there are beginners so for the Fiber Guild of the Savannas, where I'll teach next March, the group agreed to two days.
Whenever I teach at Artistic Artifacts, it is a great joy - the owner Judy and her assistant Sharon could not be more accommodating and there are always friends, former students and new ones as well. I will post pictures as soon as I get them from a friend/student who was good enough to offer to take them since I'm always so engrossed with helping students and don't remember; I have to work on that!
I had been searching for a used bullet steamer for a while and pounced on one that came up for sale on eBay and won - the day before my accident. The condition of purchase was that it had to be picked up in Asheville which is a distance away and as you can imagine, riding in a car was not possible with a broken back! I'm so lucky to have wonderful friends! and my lovely and fun friend from Charleston, Judy, went to a wedding a couple of weeks later near there and brought it to me. Since then, I haven't plucked up the courage to try it because I needed to wait until I was strong enough - so today was IT!!! And it was even more thrilling than you can imagine.
You have to start somewhere, so I just plunged in and used silk/wool blend that I had available and added some things from the garden and things stored in the freezer (even some previously used eucalyptus), sprayed with vinegar and steamed for a couple of hours. I'm so very happy with the results! They really look like an Asian print to me - very soft and flowing. So now my mind is conjuring up more experiments. As far as documenting, I'm planning to change my procedure from writing on tyvek and pinning it on the piece, to numbering each piece and documenting the process in a journal because sometimes more information is required for clarity and so I'm beginning that procedure as of today; while you think you will remember, after a while you forget without notes.
I arrived in Washington, DC, on April 30, and was whisked to stay with my 91 year old Mom (soon to be 92) in Silver Spring. Usually when you travel and teach, the host arranges accommodations but Artistic Artifacts, in Alexandria, Virginia, is so close to where my Mom lives, that I could not be so close and not stay with her. I struggled with the arrangements as unless you've ever lived in the DC/MD/VA metro area, you really have no idea what you are dealing with when it comes to traffic and I wondered how on earth I'd get from point A (my Mom's) to point B (Alexendria, VA) for 5 days of workshops. In any event, my friend Pat kindly came to my rescue (as she has done so often before) and transported me to and fro daily; we had such a great time in the car and had a chance to really catch up.
The eco printing workshop was fun and we had so many supplies to play and experiment with, but one day was not enough time to do it all especially when there are beginners so for the Fiber Guild of the Savannas, where I'll teach next March, the group agreed to two days.
Whenever I teach at Artistic Artifacts, it is a great joy - the owner Judy and her assistant Sharon could not be more accommodating and there are always friends, former students and new ones as well. I will post pictures as soon as I get them from a friend/student who was good enough to offer to take them since I'm always so engrossed with helping students and don't remember; I have to work on that!
I had been searching for a used bullet steamer for a while and pounced on one that came up for sale on eBay and won - the day before my accident. The condition of purchase was that it had to be picked up in Asheville which is a distance away and as you can imagine, riding in a car was not possible with a broken back! I'm so lucky to have wonderful friends! and my lovely and fun friend from Charleston, Judy, went to a wedding a couple of weeks later near there and brought it to me. Since then, I haven't plucked up the courage to try it because I needed to wait until I was strong enough - so today was IT!!! And it was even more thrilling than you can imagine.
You have to start somewhere, so I just plunged in and used silk/wool blend that I had available and added some things from the garden and things stored in the freezer (even some previously used eucalyptus), sprayed with vinegar and steamed for a couple of hours. I'm so very happy with the results! They really look like an Asian print to me - very soft and flowing. So now my mind is conjuring up more experiments. As far as documenting, I'm planning to change my procedure from writing on tyvek and pinning it on the piece, to numbering each piece and documenting the process in a journal because sometimes more information is required for clarity and so I'm beginning that procedure as of today; while you think you will remember, after a while you forget without notes.
