This past week, both Bob Rotche and I had the pleasure of being at the John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC for a class on surface embellishments by Dixie Biggs. If you're not familiar with Dixie's work, all I can say is go look up her website and you'll be an instant fan. She is truly a talented artist and a patient teacher who has genuine fun in doing what she does.
This has been something both Bob and I have had a desire to explore further, and I barely made it in as the 10th person registered. The room arrangements are typically dorm style, so Bob and I decided to share a room to swap stories with each other and of course, to start by sharing some wood we hoped the other wasn't accustomed to. I think I came out ahead.
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This pic is of Bob holding a cherry burl I gave him and a maple burl he gave me. I also brought some buckeye burl, box elder burl and a chunk of silver maple. My pieces from Bob included a piece of spalted hickory, Japanese cedar, and a real gem...a piece of fresh cut American Chestnut!! I won't go into details except to say Bob obviously knows people!.
The location was beautiful, the class was fantastic and everything I had hoped. The only turning during the week, was taking the cherry disc and rounding it off for use in defining the 6 styles we went over. By the end of week, we'd explored and developed a few skills to perform some simple embellishments and well detailed relief carving. We all worked our own disc and had freedom to express anything we wanted in each segment of embellishment type.
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Here's the piece I worked on with a dogwood flower, clover and a couple willow oak leaves in relief.
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By the middle of the 3rd day, several in the class had finished much of their disc complete enough and started working on whatever we wanted and whatever we had brought as canvasses for embellishment. Mine was a small cherry hollow form that I added a rope to around the top (harder than I thought), and Bob had started a platter with some Gingko leaves around it...this will be a beautiful piece when completed!
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We took some time out on Thursday to explore the work going on in other studios where classes were going on from book making/restoration, glass bead making, Shaker boxes, blacksmithing and several fiber arts. Bob hung around for a weekend class on blacksmithing...I'm sure he'll have something to add on that! The blacksmithing facility is very well set up.
All in all, a great week. To those who haven't experienced a week at John Campbell...all I can say is that it will exceed your expectations! I look forward to returning for classes on more than just work on turned items from my experience this past week! The vortex lives and breathes in almost every facet of craft when you talk to students in the range of classes there.
Laugh at least once daily, even if at yourself!
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