Midwest Felting Symposium part 3

So much has happened since the symposium that it seems like years ago. I will have to try to go back in my mind archives and see if I can find some memories of what happened.  Since then I have had another week away from home; on a retreat at the Huyck Nature Preserve with nine of my friends interpreting our surroundings in felt. But that event deserves its own post. I am also recovering from doing my one and only craft show this past weekend. So this post will probably not be the best but I will be able to cross it off my list of things to do. The weekend went well, I sold some of my older work which always feels good, and I got to spend a lot of time with my lovely daughter. Here are photos she took of my booth.

That is my wonderful dad who is another of my helpers without whom I would not do even this show. It is so much work!
Time with my daughter has been especially important since her relationship of over 8 years ended while I was out in the Midwest.  At about 2 in the morning on the day of my NoBodys class my phone rang. Talk about scary. Waking up in a hotel room to a call where all you hear is your daughter sobbing so much she can't speak. I thought someone must have died. I finally was able to hear her say 'Tony doesn't love me anymore' and my heart broke and it was AWFUL not to be there to hold her tight. I was hurting too. Tony was like a son to me and it seemed like he always would be a part of our family with or without the actual marriage certificate. There were a few other phone calls in those wee hours of the morning and a lot of tossing and turning as I worried about them and did my own mourning about the loss of a future we has all imagined. Needless to say it was not a good way to start a day that I would be teaching the class I has the most worries about being successful.
I was right to be worried. The class was listed as advanced with a warning that it would involve intense hand work yet two of my students had only felted once before. I had agreed to take one of the students when Holly, one of the organizers, told me that she had a student who really wanted to take my class but did not have not much felting experience. I told Holly to ask her to practice felting over a resist before the class, sadly that did not happen. Luckily I only had 4 students so I told them that I would do my best to help them succeed but that I had to give equal time to all the students and could not give them special attention. I also asked the class to forgive me that I was not quite all there and explained my troubled night. In the end it all was fine, since the students were happy with their creations and most importantly had a lot of fun. In a way the extra challenge was good for me since it helped distract me from worrying about my daughter. Here are the hollow heads that the students made. Only one was considered 'fully' finished. Pun intended.

This is Ramsey with her creation.

She has wonderful plans on how to finish and accessorize this guy. I hope she sends me a photo to share. I loved the bone through the chin idea.

This is Jaclyn who was one of the newbies. She 'got' it right at the start and seemed to just be able to understand how to manipulate the fibers. She also had the hand strength to be able to full the felt and shape it. She was a natural and it was amusing that she only took the class to accompany Joan.

Ah, Joan....my biggest challenge but we had so many laughs. I had to borrow a phrase that Karolina Arvilommi uses in her classes when students need to do more fulling; she simply says "little bit more". She says this so sweetly so that you do not hold it against her when she is asking you to push yourself beyond what you think you can physically handle and you just want to be done. Each time I came to Joan as I made my rotation around the room the conversation went like this:
Joan: How is this?
Me: Little bit more.
Joan: with a shocked expression Really???
It got to be a running joke...so here she is saying "little bit more".

 

Finally here is Dominique. Dominique was talked into taking my class (she did not really like my NoBodys) but she wanted to learn as many shaping techniques as possible. In the end she said she was so happy she did take the class. Dominique had just taken a class with Pamela MacGregor; a master of shaping and making hard felt. I was intimidated to teach 3D felt making to a student who had just taken one of her classes. Dominique had a bit of trouble sticking to one concept and started a few different pieces, but she worked after class hours and had a new piece started when I came to class on the second day. Her piece was inspired by the missing Nigerian school girls. She wants to add 200 spikes at the top of the figure to represent each young girl. It was my pleasure to have her in class and especially to have her share her thoughts about feltmaking and life in general. 

Fiber artists are some of the nicest people I have know and feltmakers are the best. Students may come in the door as strangers but it is not long before they seem like old friends.

My final class was back in my comfort zone teaching the one day 'ScapeScarf' class. It went really well and was a great way to end my week. Six lovely ladies created six lovely scarfs. Two of the women used my Springtime themed scarf as inspiration. 

Here is Carol's.

Sue used the same scarf for inspiration yet each woman created a piece that was truly their own. That is one of the cool things about felt. No two pieces are exactly alike.

Here is Sue.

Sharon had her own image idea that she wanted to render. Her finished piece came out just the way she described the scene to me. 

Janet wanted to render a beach scene reminiscent of the Outer Banks. I think her scarf really gives that impression. 

Betty was also thinking Spring when she made her beautiful Cherry tree scarf. I love the idea of a nice warm winter scarf showing colorful warm times of the year.

Carol had in mind a sunset. She used such beautiful colors and her use of one of my yarns was fantastic. I love when students use my materials in a way that had not occurred to me. I always learn so much when I teach.

And now it is time to do some unpacking...and cleaning...and....

The Midwest Felting Symposium Part 2: My Classes

It has taken me a bit longer than I expected to get back to writing about the Symposium. It has been a strange week. I was very affected by Robin Williams' suicide and all the discussions about depression, etc. as well as being shocked and saddened at the loss of such a brilliant man. I somehow always felt like I knew him personally, as though he could have been a member of my own crazy family. I also got bad news that one of my sisters was in a horseback riding accident while she was away on vacation. She has a compound fracture to her shoulder which required surgery and then later found out that she broke her sacrum as well. She is still in the hospital and far from her home near here so I can not do anything to help or see her in person. So to keep my mind off these less than pleasant subjects I wound up felting this scene from my trip.

What I was supposed to be doing was cleaning up this mess in my "studio". Everything was in disarray because of having to pack all my colors in spacebags for the trip.

I also had a lot of gardening to do since I had not had much time out there before the trip and there was the added chore of harvesting.

And I won't go into all the other day to day stuff the should have been getting done. I will get right on those things when I finish writing this. (Yeah, right). 

The first class I taught was my landscape class. This time it was a 3 day class and that worked out so much better than doing only 2 days. It was much more relaxed and I was able to add more information and take more time with demonstrating and giving individual attention. To me that is key with this class. It was a joy to teach this fun and talented group of women and I think their pieces came out great.

Here are photos of each student's piece after the layout, wet felting, and then one as they left the class. Many students plan to do a bit more embellishing. First here are photos of the inspiration photos they used.

Here is Sheryl's piece.

And at the end of class

Here is Hedy's piece.

And at the end of class.

Here is Suzanne's piece.

And at the end of class. Suzanne plans on adding beads and shells, etc.. I hope she sends me a photo!

Here is Bonnie's piece.

And at the end of class.

Here is Trine's piece.

At the end of class.

Here is Diane's piece.

 

At the end of class.

And here is Kathleen's piece. Kathleen liked her piece so much after wet felting that she did not want to do any needle felting on it. Many students have photos they really want to use as a reference but that might not  the best to practice all the things I want to teach them. In those cases I encourage them to work with another photo as a practice piece. I then give them advice on how to approach the next piece. This was the case with Kathleen's first photo choice so since she finished early I suggested that she do a sample of color combinations for her next piece.

Here is her first piece.

One of the nice things about having the extra time was that the students got to talk about their pieces, and what they learned, with each other more than usual. 

After that I got to take a break for a day...and now I will take a beak from this blog writing for the day. Stay tuned for the third installment.

The Midwest Felting Symposium...I did it!! PART ONE: Susan's farm in Columbus Wisconsin.

Now that that long anticipated/dreaded week is over I can be truly proud and glad that I did not let any of my fears stop me from going to teach at the Midwest Felting Symposium. One of the difficult things about being bipolar is that the person I am when I am up can be so different from the person I am when I am depressed. In this case I agreed to, and wanted to, teach at the symposium because I was on a high. I was in that phase where I feel confident and have the energy to tackle new things. Since my moods are so closely tied to the weather and seasons once winter hit I fell back into the person who has zero energy and loses the ability to see much worth in anything. The last 5 years or so have been much better in this regard but this year was worse than anything I had suffered for many many years. I had several times where I had to just go back to bed to survive the day and was even having a bit of delusional thinking. This winter was extreme where the weather was concerned but I know that the fear and stress of the up coming Symposium was a major factor in my depression. Stress is the biggest factor in triggering mental health issues and a spiral up or down can get out of control. I have learned much about what I can do to keep this from happening and getting rid of the stressors is one of the tricks and tools in my mental health toolbox. I almost called Susan McFarland who is the creator, director, heart, and big bundle of energy behind this event to tell her that I had to bow out. I didn't want to quit and was banking on the change in me that comes during the spring and summer. I am so glad I was right and did not give up. It was wonderful and such a big growing experience for me. I am thankful to Susan for asking me to be part of this event.
After Susan and her incredibly helpful sidekick Holly Tang picked me up at the airport I was lucky enough to meet up with my friend Pamela MacGregor who drove in from Ohio. We all drove out to see Susan's Fiber Shop and her beautiful Teeswater sheep. It was such a beautiful drive and it gave me a taste of what that area of Wisconsin is like.

 

 The skies were incredible that day and I am not used to seeing quite so much sky all around.

And I can not tell you how wonderful it was to drive along with someone who sees the same beautiful scene that you do and have her turn around and go back so you can get a photo. The light was already fading by the time we turned around but I still got the essence of that moment.

And here are photos of Susan's sheep with those incredible skies in the background. I want to use these as reference for a painting.

 And here is Stacy, the girl I wandered out into the pasture to see up close.

It was really funny to see all the sheep come running when Susan came to the fence. They were all 'talking' to her and each was making different sounds....very loudly!

I really was having a great time taking photos. Here are a few more. My next post will be about the actual Symposium...stay tuned.