hey everybody,
Travel is always a great way to (temporarily) run away from home and see the world through fresh eyes. New environments have a way of shaking our old thoughts loose, allowing room for new ideas to consider. This seems especially true when the destination is dramatically different from the familiar. New Mexico certainly fits that description for this North Carolina resident. Going to Taos for the On Higher Ground creative fiber retreat earlier this month was a fantastic opportunity to travel and spend creative time with my friend Julia, meet fabulous new kindred fiber spirits, learn from generous teachers, try new things, and see new landscapes, literally broadening my horizons.
My time in Taos was a total immersion in fiber: thinking about it, buying it, talking about it with other enthusiasts, and learning to do new things with it. The knitters, crocheters, weavers, and spinners at the retreat were full of excitement, skill, and enthusiasm. Teachers and participants alike were fiber artists, and everyone was eager to share ideas and try new things. My want-to-try-it list is longer than ever.
I do love to take a class, and there were four top notch classes for everyone to enjoy. First, art journaling. Art school students learn about making these journals first thing, and our class was focused on using them to capture ideas, feelings, and inspirations for future fiber projects. The closest I’ve come to art journaling is keeping a junky notebook for project ideas using a regular pencil for very crude drawings and schematics; occasionally I might drag out some colored pencils. Why is keeping a pretty journal with fine art materials like paints, pens, and pastels an effective way for fiber artists to enhance their practice? Our teacher, Stacey Budge, summed it up by saying that knitting is slow, but art journaling is fast. The idea is to get your ideas on paper in a colorful way that helps you remember your original inspiration. Stacey journals to feed a wide variety of artistic practices: spinning and dyeing, art weaving, knitting, and pottery.
The weaving class with Debra Lambert actually included leather work as well. We all chose leather pieces to turn into a pouch or a wall hanging, then we learned techniques for incorporating art yarn, beading, found objects, crochet, and weaving into the project. My cross-body purse is still a work in progress. While I didn’t get a lot done in this class (I work veeeerrrrrryyyyyyy slowly with new ideas and techniques), I have big ideas about trying out some more leather projects. Like Stacey, Debra was very inspiring with a varied scope of work: spinning art yarns, knitting/designing, hand dyeing, leather purses and bags, and art weaving.
Faith Welsh taught the knitting class, which started with a very inspirational showcase of some of her knitted pieces. So, so many ideas and inspirations. Seeing her freeform wearables was like taking part in a masterclass on construction, shape, combining colors, and balancing fibers and yarn weights. One of Faith’s many talents is making and working with art yarns, and she showed us ways to use it that highlight the beauty of these yarns without making overly bulky fabrics. What a pleasure!
The final class of the retreat was all about freeform crochet, my favorite of the fiber arts, of course. Cheryl Reifsnyder had a very impressive collection of accessories and sweaters to show us, including a dress! I particularly enjoyed seeing the way she uses larger sections with interesting stitch patterns. I’ve been doing a little of that recently in my own projects, but Cheryl’s projects take it a bit further, using carefully chosen colors and bigger sections, resulting in gorgeous fabrics with beautiful drape. Her large sections of crochet stitch patterns function a little bit like my large sections of plain knitting in that they give the eye a place to rest in an otherwise complex freeform fabric. I’m looking forward to mixing in a little bit of Cheryl’s approach for future projects.
Getting back into my studio, ideas from the retreat are making me look at projects in progress with fresh eyes. I intend to finish a few things before really getting into new projects, even though there are many projects I’d like to start that are inspired by things I saw in New Mexico. Taking a little time before rushing in to start a new project is allowing me to savor and anticipate what’s coming up. I did, however, enjoy winding up some of my new yarn purchases. One of my future new projects will use this gorgeous palette, which consists of hand dyed yarns from Debra Lambert supplemented with a few goodies from my stash.
That’s it for today, thanks so much for reading!
Lisa
Your experience of the retreat sounds amazing! What an incredible location :) The color palette of your next project sings to my blue loving heart :)
You're making me wish I had gone this year. Lisa! So glad you enjoyed it. I'm hoping that Jane Thornley et al will consider doing such a retreat in Nova Scotia again next year. Would definitely attend that one.