How do I describe my first face-to-face encounter with Alison Cole? A delight. We have gone back and forth the last couple of years via internet but I had never met her. She doesn't know it, but we are soul sisters. Why do I say this? Because one of the first things she did was take off her shoes! My kinda gal! The only downside I have discovered so far is that she talks funny! Well, this country girl will figure it out eventually - we gotta get her to slow down!
Isn't she just the cutest? And she had teenaged children! Unbelievable. She is a delight and you must take a class with her if you have the opportunity.
I was fortunate enough to get into the wonderful dragon class. What am I going to do with a dragon? I don't know but look at all the wonderful techniques! I (how shall I say this diplomatically) am not fond of gold work. I love to look at it, respect it, don't want to do it. I sorta overlooked that little part of the project when I got so excited about it. Thank heavens there is enough other stuff about this piece that will entice me to continue on.
I also was lucky enough to be at a table with only 2 chairs (all the others have 3). And I had seen my table mate in the airport in Atlanta where she came up to me and guessed where I was going! And she even guessed what class I was taking! Wow! Okay, I was carrying a large 20 x 20 piece of laced canvas, which happened to be the same thing she was carrying. Sheila is from Atlanta. We did not get to chat in the airport as we were boarding but we are getting acquainted as we go.
Our class is quite different for many. The lacing of the canvas and getting it our 'drum tight' and Alison's 'drum tight' are two different things. Part of the class time involves her going around and lacing everyone's canvas so they are perfect. Never fear, however, as she gives us plenty of busy work to do while she does this wonderful service for us all.
This afternoon we got to really get messy and paint our canvas, tyvek and tissue paper. Now painting tissue paper works just exactly as it sounds - moves around, gets crumbly on itself, but it works. We must let this all dry before we can use all this great creativity on our project. Can't wait until tomorrow to really mess it up!
Oh, we got to stitch again. This time we traced (a skill learned this morning), transferred to felt, cut out the felt and then applied it to our silk. Another prep step for the fun coming tomorrow.
I must say that I have been having a great time. I have been seeing some of my students from previous classes and met some who have signed up for the Mod Ornaments Online Mystery Class. It is always such a joy to see students face-to-face.
I dropped by the exhibit for next year's classes and they let me fluff up my pumpkin leaves since they had gotten flattened in the shipping process. Much better now.
Later
Sandy
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