Back Home from J C Campbell and a Bit About My Class

Okay, I've talked about all the other classes at J C. Campbell, now it's time to show what my class accomplished during the week.

Our class was small but that turned out to be a blessing.  This class is very intense, there is a lot of information to process in five days.

We begin the class by creating the canvas, which in the case of this class is a landscape.

We have two days to get it under construction.  We then move on to the eight layer/value portrait.

I always work with my students before class to help them select a photo/photos that they want create.  Often we go through many photos before we come up with just the right one.

We can use a photo with a portrait/background/landscape that is the original photo or we can take two different photos and overlay them so that they make one.

Debbie M. had this photo of her husband Jim in a beautiful setting.  We tried isolating him and putting him in other landscapes but this one was by far the most satisfying.  Keep in mind that these are unfinished pieces.  The white around Jim will be cut away and he will be attached to the landscape and then quilted.

We discussed that I thought Jim's eye color was too blue but she can correct that when she quilts the piece.  I can't wait to see this one finished.

This is Gretchen and her piece.  Gretchen's landscape was by far the largest in the class.  We had a problem in the beginning because she didn't have the best sky fabric.

I always bring fabric from my stash just in case.  This piece just made her landscape.

When we do our before class prep I have the students have their photos enlarged so that we get the proper proportions.   Gretchen had a friend enlarge the landscape and then the portrait.  The portrait was enlarged a little smaller than the landscape so this was as far as Gretchen could go in the class.  Really, it's all she had time to do anyway.  She will have the enlargement done again in the right size and finish out her body.  Great Job.

Jane took my class last year.  She was going through a difficult time in her life but did a great job finishing her landscape and the portrait of her granddaughter. (show about her head)

She had chosen quite a large project for a beginner to portraits.  Three people in one piece takes a while to finish.

Jane decided that she wanted to come back this year to refresh her memory.  She has the second one almost done with one more to go.  This is going to be stunning when it is finished.
Jane is going to either quilt or applique sea oats behind the kids. 

Jan really moved along with her piece.  She has the background almost finished quilting.  She used some roving to add a little sparkle to the water and a shadow by the drift wood on the beach.

Jan was worried, for a while, that the portrait wasn't looking like her grandson, August.  Look at the two of them side by side.  See any resemblance?   She wrote this week that the piece will soon be done.  I love it when a student get's into the class so much that they keep going when they get home.

Lucy came to the class just a week before it was to begin so she had a lot of work to get done in a week.  She was having trouble finding digital photos because they usually only take photos of landscapes.

I totally understand that because I tend to do the same thing.  However, I finally decide to have her take a photo of her husband and he one of her and we came up with a merged image that worked.
Lucy's husband had something to do with the restoring of the lighthouse in the background, I hope I'm getting this right Lucy, so this landscape was important to them.

Lucy had the most incredible piece of batik that worked beautifully for the trees in the background.  That is one piece of fabric cut into shapes to resemble trees.  I might give my eye teeth for a yd of that fabric.   Lucy wasn't happy with the sky fabric but she left it there for this class.  When we were almost through she said the fabric was growing on her and she might leave it as is.  I'm kind of agreeing that this looks pretty good.   Lucy is an artist and it usually doesn't take me long to spot my artist.  This was very apparent in the placing of her light and dark against each other to make the trees look realistic.  Another great job.

What a great class.

Back Home with lots of tell about my week at J C. Campbell

The last day of classes everyone brings what they have made to Keith House for Show & Tell. Basic ladderback chair was taught by Lyle Wheeler.

 Mind you the chairs started our as trees and were whittled down on these wood horses.

These baskets started our the same way teachers, Mary Ann & Bill Smith brought the trees to Campbell in their truck.  This is what happened during the week.

 The Blacksmithing class, Forging Your Ideas into Reality was taught by Lucas House.  The Blacksmithing class is always one that is highly sought after.  Show here is a press.  Below are flowers made out of iron.

Aren't these beautiful?  Returning students have learned not to sit at the dining table with the blacksmiths.  Meals are served family style and the blacksmiths always come in very hungry.

Felt Making, rugs taught by Beck Walker is another class that starts from the beginning.  They use raw wool fresh from the sheep.

My husband doesn't always go with me when I teach but if they are offering something he's interested in, then he signs up.

Glass: The Magic of Stained Glass Open Work taught by Karen Reed was one of those classes.  This was a really unique way to work with stain glass.

I saw my husband come out of a funk, our children/grandchildren has just left from visiting for a week, to being fun and having fun in this class.

This is my husband's finished piece.   Karen gave them a selection of different patterns from which to choose.  These were traditional stain glass patterns.  They were told to redesign them to make the piece 3-D and to be incorporated within the oval ring.

Karen then gave them a styrofoam ball and cone shape and they were to make an armature and design a stain glass piece.  This, again, is my husbands design.

 Rugs, Weaving taught by Christie Rogers produced some beautiful rag rugs.  This class is in the Fiber Studio, which we share, so we always get a little sneak preview.

Wood Turning: Turn and Embellish a Deep-hollow vessel taught by Steve Sinner also produced some really beautiful wood work.  





For some reason I forgot to take photos of the beautiful chocolate made by Robert Reeb's class.  Could be I was only interested in tasting.

What's in Your Writing Folder taught by Dana Wildsmith presented a reading the night before in the library at Keith Hall.  The last post talks about the Beginning Guitar class and the Muppet class.  The only one left is the Quilting Class.  Personal Places: Portraits in the LandScape taught by me.  That's gets a post all to its self.  

Back Home with lots to tell about J C Campbell

J. C. Campbell Folk School, of and on, offers a class titled  "Unique Offerings"  this year I was lucky enough to be there when a class in Muppet making was in session.

David Stevens seen here with his assistant teacher Lobert taught this class.  David by himself was funny but with Lobert he was hilarious.  He's also a great banjo player and singer.

 On Wednesday evening David and Lobert presented a muppet show for anyone who wanted to attend.  JCC offers some kind of entertainment each evening at seven.  Lobert is actually making announcements here and one of the announcements was to not take photos during the performance.  David offered to let us take photos later.

Oops! I already had this one taken before he made that announcement.

David and the Muppets performed several skits and they were FUNNY.  Though focused toward children, the adults laughed and enjoyed the show,  perhaps even more, than the children.

During Show and Tell on Friday, all the classes display their projects made during the week.

I believe the top row of Muppets are Davids but the ones on the bottom are student's work.

I was amazed to see two finished Muppets for each student.

This class had only three students.  I'm not sure why more people didn't sign up, but I have a feeling that if it's offered again there will be many more students.  Me for one.

  One of the students got way-laid, by these children, on her way to Show and Tell.

I can see a wonderful use for these Muppets.  Perhaps to a child psychologist, a children's ministry, a special education teacher, a librarian or just for someone to have fun with.

 The music class this week was beginning guitar taught by Rick Taylor.  The students had shown their new found ability just before David's class presented their Muppets.

The guitar class accompanied the Muppets and their humans in two songs.

David carries his Muppet theater all over the US.  He specializes in presentations to libraries and 
schools.  If you are interested in getting in touch with him go to his web site,
 ALLHANDSPRODUCTIONS.COM

More Folk School park two

This is a group shot of the amazing students I taught at J C Campbell the week of Nov. 6. How is it that I luck into having such wonderful people as my students. Maybe the atmosphere at JCC has something to do with it.

As promised I am going to post the remainder of my photos tonight. This is Tone C. with her beautiful daughter, beautifully rendered by her Mother. Tone is also an instructor at JCC. I'm always a little intimidated when I have a teacher in my class. However, Tone put me at ease and let me believe I was really teaching her something.

A close-up of the finished top. Tone is also is a felt maker. She used her own felt for her daughter's hat. She also free-motion thread painted some of the flowers in the background. Beautiful job Tone.

Mary was another student who really didn't need my help in making the portrait of her daughter and son-in-law. Mary is a doll maker and a wonderful one at that. She came to the class with a vision of how she wanted this done. I think her vision was right on. Another beautiful job.

Susan C. is doing a wonderful job on this piece. The portrait is of her good friend, Ellen. Ellen taught Susan how to quilt.

Susan was having a problem with the fabrics for the portrait. I have to assume responsibility for that as I guided her in this direction. I recently received a note from her and I think she has this worked out in her mind now.

Susan had perhaps the hardest landscape to make and she got a lot done considering we only worked two days on the landscape. Another job well done.

Susan M. is Susan C's sister-in-law they decided to take this class together. I got the feeling from Susan that this class was way out of her box. I believe she told me that she had never done anything like this before. I really would rather have someone who doesn't have a preconceived idea of what they need to do. Susan was very open to suggestions and really listened to my instructions.

Her portraits did not have as much information (pixel wise) as do most of the others. This made the pattern a little harder to read. I was so proud of what Susan did in this class. I can't wait to see it finished.

This is Beverly K's grandson. Beverly is one of those people who is her own worst critic. (She admitted this to me) She did such a wonderful job on this piece, but it was not without inflicting self wounds. I'm stretching this a little to make a point. I really want my students to enjoy what they are doing. I also want them to work to their best ability but love of creating should overtake perfection.

Now that I'm off my soap box, Beverly was unhappy with the dark fabric around the outside of the face. I agree that the transition was to stark. After Beverly returned home she changed that piece.

This is the redone face. Great job.

How do I do this every time. I missed getting a photo Donna D's granddaughter. If you read the previous post Donna created the landscape of the lake. Her granddaughter's photo was another hard one to work with. Her face was in shadow and we had to guess at some things. However, it was really turning out to be a very good portrait. Sorry Donna.

Jane O. did a great job on her granddaughter. She has a very complicated portrait to work on as there are three people in the photo. Jane sent me the photo and I just fell in love with these three faces.

I usually recommend that my student start with one portrait but when you think about it that's what they are doing. They just finish the other two at home. Jane did a super job on this and I can't wait to see the finished piece.

This is Mary M. with Stephanie and Grace. Mary is a real animal lover. These animals are lucky to have her in their lives. Mary wasn't real happy with her fabrics for the dogs. She was thinking about changing them later. I thought that they worked quite well. The fabrics were heavy, textured fabrics. I see those as working well for animals.

We all decided that Mary's leaves worked really well for this piece. They lend a feeling of folk art to the piece.

What can I say now. I have made eight new friends in the quilt world. I hope that I inspired in them the desire to continue creating. I know that they always inspire me.

More Folk School

I'm going to finish blogging about the landscapes that were part of this class last week. Beverly K. wanted to portray her grandson at the lake where he likes to fish. She brought a piece of batik fabric where colors blended into each other and represented the water quite well. After adding a little paint to get yellow in the right areas she had the perfect piece.

Since we only had two days to actually work on the landscape Beverly was not able to get the leaves of the tree finished. She was throwing around several ideas one being snippets. There are several ways this could be done.

What she has on the background now is leaves that she fussy cut out of printed fabric. I demonstrated a technique I use where you cut out small pieces of fabric and place them between tulle and Solvy. You then thread paint over the surface and connect them by threads.

Mary K, sent me a photograph of her daughter's wedding. They were married in a field in Ohio that was lovely. However, Mary wanted to present them in a landscape with Stone Henge in the background. Stone Henge represented the careers of both bright and groom.

I knew before Mary came that she had a vision for this piece. I love to see students do their own "thing". I only guided a bit so I can't take much credit on Mary's piece.

Mary is also a doll maker. If you look up in the right hand corner you will see a stick doll that she made out of a piece of broken tree limb and fabric.

Mary M. is a lover of animals. She rescues both wild and domestic animals. She is certified to take wild animal babies into her home and nurse them back to health. She is also the owner of five dogs.

It was natural then that Mary chose two of her dogs to portray in her piece. Mary's family has owned a piece of property on a lake for a long time. She chose that location for her landscape.

Tone C. worked on the largest of the landscapes made last week. Don't know how but I failed to get a photo of just her landscape. During the time we emailed before class I got the feeling that Tone would be open to an abstract piece. I emailed her about the possibility of an abstract and she was eager to proceed in that direction.

I'm going to leave her photo for the post when I talk about the portraits. More later

J. C. Campbell Class

It seems I've been burning the candle at both ends recently. Out of the last 24 days I've spend eight of those days at home. The at-homes days were scatter here and there. I've enjoyed teaching and my trip to Houston but am now paying for the stress with a sinus infections. Don't get me wrong I would do it all again I'm just feeling a little sorry for myself right now. (besides it's rainy and I always feel better on sunny days.)

This beautiful red oak tree decorates the parking log at the Fiber Studio on the Campus of J. C. Campbell Folk School. I have never been to Campbell when I wasn't inspired by its beauty.

The title of my class last week was "Personal Places: Portraits in the Landscape". This class combine two classes into one. A landscape class and a portrait class. Both are quite an undertaking for a week class but the two together makes for a very intense class. This group came through with flying colors. I'm going to break this post down into two or three sections. Today I'm going to post about the landscape sections.

I like to start this class with the landscape for several reasons. It is a simpler class than the portrait one and it also gives me a chance to see how each students works with fiber and how she/he sees fabric. It also provides a canvas for the portrait.

Susan C. chose a photo of her friend Ellen to create in fabric. Ellen's home is in a word "homey". She has wonderful antique pottery and furniture. She does a lot of quilting so Susan wanted to portray her doing just that.

Because I exchanged many emails with Susan before the class I knew that she had experience with landscapes. I asked her if she would like to begin her piece at home by working on the quilt in the photo. She did just that and gave herself a little hands-up on the project. Her quilt will show up later in photos to follow.

This piece is being worked on by Donna D. Donna wanted to make a portrait of her granddaughter. The setting is a lake that means a lot to their family. Donna seemed to start off a little slow and then I turned around and looked back and she had the whole forest finished.

Jane O. sent me a photo with three of her grandchildren included. I usually discourage more than one portrait in a beginning class but as long as the student realizes that they won't be able to get more than one made I don't object. Besides, I loved this photo and wanted to see Jane work on it.

The beach means a lot to Jane's family. The kids were sitting on steps that went down to the beach. The steps were out of focus and would have made a really interesting abstract background. However, Jane wanted to have the experience of making a landscape so we chose a scene from the beach. Jane will thread paint sea oats on the sand dune.

I've gotten too wordy and will post more later.

Off to J. C. Campbell Folk School

View from the porch at the Keith House.

My cars packed and I'm ready to roll. Off tomorrow for a week at J. C. Campbell Folk School. Looking forward to meeting new students and spending a week at a wonderful place. Keep a look-out for more.