classes

My friend Sylvia made me a gorgeous bead crochet necklace. Bead crochet is something I’ve done a couple of times with size 8 beads, and while I understand the basics of a very simple rope with slip stitch, I find it difficult. My tension is very tight, and I don’t get a lovely supple rope like she does. So I am grateful for her expert work, and am making something for her in exchange. She said she likes turquoise, so I made this sample of a 4-sided peyote rope, and showed her this picture.

The light color is a very light pearl pink, the turquoise is matte, and the corner beads are a reddish-brown ab true cut. Sylvia likes the stitch, but would like different colors with the turquoise. So, I sent her a couple of pictures of color ideas, and we’ll figure out better colors for her.

I learned the stitch from Kelly Lightner. She was the teaching assistant for Joyce Scott when I took a Split Rock Arts class with Joyce, and on the last day of class, taught this stitch. We called it “The Kelly Stitch…”

Split Rock has turned 25! And, registration opens today.

It used to be at the University of Minnesota - Duluth, which is where I attended two different workshops, the first led by Joyce Scott, and the second by David Chatt. They were hugely rewarding, invigorating, and challenging. You check in Sunday night, work/create all day Monday through Friday, and go home after breakfast on Saturday. There’s a meet-the-teacher event (Tuesday?), an open studio night (Thursday?), and a great (hilly!) campus and city to explore. I keep looking to see if there’s another that I could take.

Split Rock moved to the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. This is my metro area, so both more convenient — and less of a retreat. There are 3 workshops this summer that caught my eye.

Karen Searle is teaching a “short” (not the full week) in June, Creative Adornments in Knit and Crochet. From her website:

She judged something I entered once, and I met her in passing. She has a fabulous reputation as a teacher.

Another that looks interesting is Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary: Hand Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagen. I kind of like taking the idea of something that appears narrow in focus, and spending a week exploring it. Here’s an example from his website:

The other one that caught my eye was Digital Nature Photography: A Retreat. This one is taught by Craig Blacklock at the Cloquet Forestry Center, a campus for the University of Minnesota a bit southwest of Duluth. This is a beautiful area, and Blacklock is a well-known outdoor photographer specializing in the North Shore (the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior). Here’s his website, and here’s the cover of his book:

I’m not going this year, but I’ll keep watching for another class. It is well worth it!