The Vermont retreat went smashingly. It was such an amazing experience to spend four days with a group of tapestry weavers in one big house eating great food and playing with yarn.
We started off talking about value and color and then after some discussion about principles of good design, everyone was off working on their own personal missions.
One of the yarn tables turned into a value study.
Some people concentrated on color and value studies.
Gerri's complementary color study
Ginny's value study along with gradations
I loved so many things about the retreat, but my favorite thing was seeing all the ideas these weavers brought to the table. The ideas everyone was working on were personal, exciting, and extremely diverse.
Betsy, Linda, and Kathy talking with Cathie about the large design she was working on.
Betsy, Deb, and Gerri discussing some of Betsy's work.
Some fantastic weaving happened. Some people chose to do sampling for larger pieces and some dove right into a new tapestry.
Karen's sample for a series of tapestries; trying different techniques
Linda's chicken. She did a fantastic job dyeing the yarn for the feathers. You can see more of her work at Pinestar Studio.
We also had a wonderful time eating, laughing, soaking in the hot tub while stargazing, eating, laughing, weaving, watching movies, walking, and oh yeah, laughing.
An evening fire...
... with S'mores. Deb kept us laughing all weekend.
And the food, cooked by our personal chef Tesha Buss, was marvelous. You know, every single thing she made was gluten free even though she and I were the only two celiacs. It was amazing.
(back) Kathy, Linda, Nancy, Betsy, Linda, Cathie, Ginny, Susan (front) Deb, Gerri, Karen, Christine, Rebecca
The retreat was in Plymouth, a teeny village made "famous" for being the birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge (but the real gem of the Coolidge estate, no offense intended to the late president, is the cheese factory). Central Vermont is so beautiful. Everything was green and wet and lovely.
Every loom in the house was a Mirrix except one. Not that I was counting...
Good Commons was the general store for the area for 150 years. It still has a creek running right under the back deck--made a great refrigerator I'm sure.
I think we will do this again. Until next time, Good Commons.