Dream Adventure, Day 11

Enjoying my last day in Asheville. We wandered the downtown, visited art galleries, had a wonderful visit with my friend and former employee Amanda Brown, found letterboxes, ate and ate and took pictures in the gardens of the 1889 White Gate Inn.  I have loved this break before going home but now I am ready to get home and work on batiks. All the photos I take I look at as possible batiks. Thanks to my friend Molly I am learning to change the photo's to outlines. I am truly a blessed, lucky, fortunate woman to have this amazing and fulfilling life!!!

The bungalow where we are staying

The gardens are beautiful

I love the ponds

Dream Adventure, Day 9

Well this is it, my last day here. To be able to immerse yourself in art, to devote most all thoughts and time to creating without the bother of having to care for yourself is a rare gift. For most of the week I had no worries of deadlines, my creative soul was caught up in a flow of energy, I let my imagination run wild, I tried techniques that were challenging, that pushed me out of my comfort zone.  I learned so much! Everyday they have Morningsong. Today my dulcimer instructor is preforming.

There is a sadness that my time here has ended but it will be fun to get home and continue learning the process of batik and practicing on my dulcimer.

Getting ready to play

In the mean time I am going to think about Asheville and the fun we will have there. I am even going to meet a friends who I have only known on Facebook

Dream Adventure, Day 8

Another beautiful morning in my very happy life. This weekend is so different from the non-stop creative fever of this past week, yet it is as wonderful and as challenging. I am excited to get up and practice my dulcimer before I go to class. I may be a bit thin on photos this weekend since it's very hard to play a dulcimer and take photo's at the same time!! I did mange a few of my class and my instructor.

My instructor Ann Lough

My sweet little dulcimer

Tonight I took a final walk around the campus to say good bye to this beautiful school. My time here has had a profound effect on my life and has changed me in ways that I never dreamed of.  I will never forget what I learned here and how my life, my art and my future will be heading in new and exciting directions.

The chickens came to say goodbye

I love the art the fills the garden and the walls
here at the school

After my walk I went over the Keith house to watch the Contra dancing, it looked like a lot of fun.

Time to turn in, I will have class in the morning and then we will leave. I am glad for our next adventure in Asheville it will take some of the sadness out of leaving here.

Dream Adventure, Day 7

It's time for a new class and a new adventure. For the most part I will have all new people to get to know as few students are staying for the weekend classes. Three fourths of Carolyns millenery class is staying for another millenery class over the weekend so there will be some familiar faces.

I must admit I am feeling a little homesick right now. I think after a week of immersing myself in  creativity and being surrounded by creative people this short bit of down time has my emotions bouncing around. I am missing the kitty girls, my friends, the gallery and my usual routine. Need to change this and quick!!

Ahhh my peace and joy is back!!!! Taking a walk and immersing myself in the beauty of this place put everything right in my world.

One of my final pieces

Our class

My "Diploma" 

Samples of our work at show and tell

After lunch and our final farewells Carolyn and I drove two miles to explore downtown the metropolis of Brasstown. We didn't buy anything but it was nice to look at some beautiful arts and crafts.

Downtown Brasstown

A very cool shop owned by a glass bead and jewelry artist who
teaches here at Campbell.

What an amazing evening I had, I found myself crying tears of joy again tonight, this has been such an amazing gift!! I am very very blessed!!

I love my dulcimer class. We didn't waste any time we started playing songs right away and later when I was practicing Carolyn recognized the songs I was playing. I think thats a pretty good thing. LOL 

I am looking forward to a full day of playing tomorrow, this weekend is really going to go fast. 

Dream adventure, Day 6

It's a beautiful misty morning here in the mountains, I look forward to taking a walk in the mist and exploring a different part of the campus. One of things that is very surprising is how many people have been here before. Very few of us are here for the first time. I have talked to people that have been here 4 or 5 times to a couple who have been coming here every year for the last 10 years. This serene and beautiful environment fosters a love of not only the school but of the people who attend and the classes they teach.
Today is the last full day of batik and I have two projects to finish. One will be a fairly easy one and the other a bit more challenging. If I can pull it off the more challenging one will be very cool.
My first stop this morning is the studio to check on a batik that has been on the porch soaking in black dye all night.

Laundry on the line

My hands are blue

The Mill House

My favorite gate

Trail to the Blacksmith shops and the Mill House.

So I ended up doing three projects, I so hate waiting for things to dry. LOL I may be working late tonight but it will all be good!! This has turned out to be more than I ever dreamed of, I know I have said it before but this has been a great experience and I have made some wonderful friends!!

This was the most complex and layer batik I made. It is my least
favorite process and yet has produced my two favorite batiks.

This is my absolute favorite batik and one of the ones I will have in the show and tell tomorrow morning. I will post the picture of my last three tomorrow after they have been boiled and dried.


I am a little sad that the class is ending, I will finish with batik in the morning and then start my dulcimer class in the evening. In between time we are going into the tiny town of Brasstown to check out their artisan shops. Time to head to bed I will be up early in the morning to start the boiling pots to help get the last of the batiks finished.

Dream Adventure, Day 5

I slept so well last night, all the fresh air and work must be catching up to me. I didn't even get up and go walking this morning, my bed was sooooo comfy and warm. We share a thermostat with another room and they seem to like arctic temperatures. It gets cooler every night. LOL 

Today I boil the wax off my first painted piece, decide how to dye my "Zentangle" piece and then continue with my other painted piece. All work has be be finished with dye baths by tomorrow night so I'm not sure if I will start another piece or not... who am I kidding, of course I will.

My first "painted" piece.

"zentangle" before dying.

"Zentangle" after dying, The turquoise circle is not as light as it appears.

Yep, just like I knew I would, I am starting another piece, oh wait I'm starting two new pieces... but the instructor did encourage me too LOL. I am playing with some of the techniques we learned I love the design aspects although I still struggle with color sometimes. I look forward to when they are all finished and I can see what I have done. It will be fun to work on this at home, although I will miss my instructors advice!!

WAHHHHHHH It's only 9 and I am back in the room!!I have one piece soaking in dye overnight and my last :::sniff:::sniff::: 2 projects are drying so I can work on them tomorrow. I am not ready for this to over!!! 

Dream Adventure, Day 4

I woke early again today, my heart filled with joy and my mind spinning with all I have learned and what I have ahead. I wish I could be in the studio now! I spent a part of last evening looking at batik supplies, I have a feeling the first order will go in before I even leave here. So many supplies, so much to learn, so many new possibilities.
But before I get to all that I am off to explore some trails this morning, I think I will skip Morningsong today in favor of exploring the campus, and gardens before breakfast.

My home away from home and also where the batik
and music studios are. I don't have far to go in
the mornings. 

Flowers from the gardens, wet from the rain.

So far this is my favorite piece.

First projects are completed!! My very first was not what I hoped, some of the colors are too similar.  Its Ok, I am learning and I still love my first baby. LOL My next two projects are much better. The one with the sun I call my kindergarten drawing. I was waiting for other things to dry and didn't want to just sit so I played around. LOL

The kindergarten drawing, it still has some wax on it.

I had all good intentions of going to yoga this afternoon and Contra dancing tonight but I just LOVE doing the batik soooo, I would rather stay in the studio and work and thats what I am doing.










These two pieces are created  using a painting technique. it is challenging because you are layering a lot of colors and you don't really define the design until the end. I can't wait to see what they look like in the end.

All I have to do is the final immersion in black dye and then I will boil the wax off.
Except for a few spots where black will go this entire piece is covered in wax.
This will have three layers of dye on it when finished.

The start of a floral painted piece. I have wax on the few spots I wanted white,
now I will wax the spots I want to remain these colors and then I will
dye paint another darker layer. Then wax, then dye paint over and over. In between they have to dry and hour and then get rinsed and dried again. It is not a fast process.

It's 10:20 and I'm just getting in from a night in the studio, have I mentioned how much fun I am having? I am almost at the halfway point, this week is going too fast!!