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Sunday, May 22, 2011

A Class at the Barn

     What a great week at the Barn with fiber artists Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan. First of all, I want to tell you what excellent teachers these two are. Their enthusiasm for surface design and teaching skills  are truly gifts. I went with really no idea of how the class would be structured and what we would accomplish. Each morning a design technique was covered and generally in the afternoon and evening, we would work away or should I say play away.


     The wet studio is amazing. Large sinks, large print tables and we each had our own space-wet and dry with unlimited access to all the supplies.


     We learned about print paste, screen printing with the dyes, using unlimited amount of mark making tools, de-constructed screen printing, thermofax screens, freezer paper stencils, paper lamination, monoprinting, soy wax and lots of other things...So many techniques that I was overwhelmed and didn't end up trying two of them.

     Some were old hands at the techniques and came for more of the design aspect of creating a compositional cloth and others like me were new to the techniques. There were several very talented artists. And it was a joy to watch them work. All of us played very hard and really didn't let the weather hinder us. It rained the entire week so we couldn't get our screens to dry for de-constructed printing. Getting things to dry and not bleed was a challenge as well with the high humidity.



     I met new friends from Canada and Australia. And got to spend time with an old friend . Dorothy Caldwell was in the upstairs studio with a full studio and we had 21 people in class. It was a busy place but never felt crowded.

   More tomorrow.

Be creative, my friends.

  

3 comments:

  1. How exciting! Its a dream of mine to take a class there - someday! :)

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  2. Yes, it was a another wet week in Ohio. We did have sunshine all day Sat. and Sunday, but it is raining again today. So glad to hear you enjoyed your classes. I maybe I will take a class there someday myself.

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  3. Two meals are included in the workshop fee as well as an afternoon snack. That allows you to work until 10:30 if you want! And come at 7:30am. The meals are wonderful.You can share a hotel room with another workshop participant(listed prior to the workshop who is looking to share a room) to decrease the cost and grab breakfast at the hotel. Don't know if that helps...but maybe for future dreaming.

    Lynn- I gave some of the gals your name for thermofax screens :) and showed off the beautiful screens you made!

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