Design Outside the Lines, Day Two

Along the lane to our lodge.

According to my camera phone, I took 430 pictures today.

So many garments were shown, so many samples passed around, I thought my head might explode. And I wasn't alone. One of the first things Sherry said to me when she stood up after the presentations was "I think my head might explode."

I wish I could mind meld with you and convey the events, visuals, and information of the day. Since that isn't possible, I will give you a few pictures, but just a few.

Marcy talked about t-shirts, tips for sewing with knits (especially thin knits), pattern alterations and manipulations, and developing patterns for Vogue.
Diane talked about collars, cording, and all sorts of embellishments and garment manipulations.

Besides the excellent lectures today, and the demos, I ran into town for a bit. Downtown Taos is really nice: the views are amazing, the shopping is good, and the restaurants are great. Taos is 7000 feet above sea level, much higher than I realized. They experience autumn, complete with fall colors. The boutiques in Taos are currently selling heavy wool coats and sweaters, which makes sense, I guess, since people come here in winter to ski, but it surprised me.

The weather right now is completely gorgeous: sunny, breezy and in the low 70s. The sky is an intense shade of blue and the cloud formations are both unusual and beautiful. Plus, the crickets chirp in the early afternoon. What is that about?

Stepping Out, a very nice shoe and clothing store
Uncommon Thread is a very interesting, very unusual fabric store. They love the folks from Marcy's retreats.

A few more photos from downtown Taos.

Because I spent an hour or so in town and then walked around taking photos, I had very little time to do much hands on work today. After returning from my outing, I decided to try painting on fabric with my hand made brush using Dynaflow paints, which was one of Diane's demos. My table partner, Diana, had dumpster dived and found some old mesh screen to fashion her paint brush. I borrowed her idea and used the same material to create my own brush, though my stick was much longer and the "bristles" on my brush were longer and more uneven. I discovered that it makes a great spatter brush.

Diane's painting with Dynaflow demo.
The beginning of my effort, using my brush fashioned from a window screen.
Marcy's demo for sewing a neckline in a thin knit, assisted by fabric glue.

Today's painting effort started out better than yesterday's stencil practice, but, in the end, the fabric is much larger than yesterday's samples, and pretty darned ugly. It didn't bother me as much this time. I can tell I need a lot more practice to get somewhere good. That's ok.

Maybe part of my lack of self confidence is that many of the people here are very artistic. The more I speak to them, the more awed I become. More than one have pieces, of various kinds, in galleries. More than one run businesses based on fiber art, or other kinds of art. It's quite impressive and, just maybe, it gives me permission to create infantile artwork, since I don't have that sort of background. I'm the slow kid in class and need to repeat the third grade. Today, I'm ok with that.

I haven't taken many photos of people, but let me share a couple, both of whom read my blog. Have I mentioned that I love to meet folks who read my blog? :)

Emily
Peggy

We are staying, and working, at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House inn and conference center. This inn is so historic, with such unusual architecture, that it has a palpable presence. Georgia O'Keeffe stayed here for awhile, though she had issues with Mabel, and she ultimately found other Taos accommodations.

The dining room, where we are fed, though I eat outside in the breezy courtyard as much as possible.
Breakfast and lunch is included as part of the retreat. This is today's lunch.
One of my blog readers said, don't forget to check out the Solarium! So I did. This room, where Mabel herself slept, is perched at the top of the main building, and has a 360 degree view. You climb a ladder to ascend. Nope, no curtains.
This bathroom is available for those staying in "Tony's room", just below the Solarium. I think Tony was Mabel's husband.
The staircase to Tony's and Mabel's rooms.

And here's wee bit more eye candy.

Design Outside the Lines, Day One

Entrance to the work room area.
Building that houses the work room.

This is interesting.

Day one of DOL is done and my mind is unable to shut down. I'm hoping that posting a quick summary of the day will allow me to sleep.

There are three aspects to the format of DOL.

First, there are the morning classes. After a hearty breakfast prepared by the lodge cooks, we sit in a comfy room and Marcy and Diane alternate lecturing. So much information is presented, so many garments and ideas shared, that it would be a lot to absorb with even half as much info. The phrase "drinking from a fire hose" comes to mind.

Loving Diane's Trippens!

The second aspect is demos.

After the morning classes, we enjoy a delicious lunch, also prepared by the lodge cooks, and the rest of the day is spent in the work room. Diane and Marcy perform various demos (today's demos included silk screening, stenciling, and tricks of sewing with bias, though I might be forgetting something). Both Marcy and Diane are completely open and generous with their information.

The final aspect is free time to work on our individual projects, or run into town, as needed.

I didn't feel ready to run into town today, so I focused on a skill that is waaaaay outside my comfort zone - stenciling. I am a person who is comfortable with pattern manipulation, fabric collaging, and fitting myself. I am pretty comfortable with needle felting, embroidery, fabric dyeing. But the more traditional artistic pursuits, drawing, painting, sketching... not so much.

Nevertheless, I feel that even I should be able to master stenciling, or at least achieve competency. Following Diane's advice, I cut samples of several pieces of fabrics in light and dark colors, selected a couple of stencils, filled my plate with blobs of paint, and got started.

This was not as easy (for me) as it sounds. By dinner time, I had created some stenciled fabrics, but was feeling frustration with the results. I even considered switching gears and moving to a project within my comfort zone, but I resisted.

Diane, sensing my mood, talked me down. She pointed out some ways I could move forward with the samples I had already created.

Her suggestion of using them as piping just might give you an idea as to the quality of my experiments. :) But it also shows her brilliance, because they were pretty darned good in that form.

I had an enjoyable dinner with some of my hall mates, followed by some good sewing conversation and sharing, and things are looking up. Diane emphasized in her lecture last night that "to get a different result, you have to do things differently", which is pretty astute. Growth happens outside of the comfort zone.

I can't imagine a more supportive environment for this sort of experiment.

P.S. By the way, thanks so much for all of your kind comments! While it's true that my room does not have wifi, the lodge has wifi in the very comfy lounge in the main building.

Design Outside the Lines, Getting There

Getting to DOL in Taos is half the fun. I don't fly much these days, so maybe I'm just not remembering, but I think my early morning flight to Albuquerque was one of the most beautiful I've ever experienced. Sunrise over the Sierras (it is the Sierras, right?), amazing cloud formations over the desert. It mades the invasive airport scan (hello, there!)... worthwhile.

The primary reason I choose such an early flight is because I've never been to New Mexico and I wanted to allow as much time as possible to check out Santa Fe. Landing in Albuquerque and driving to Taos is a 3-hour trip, and Santa Fe is just about in the middle of that drive, so I had to take advantage of the opportunity.

I squeezed my Santa Fe experience in about 4 hours. First I checked out the mother of high end RTW boutiques, Santa Fe Dry Goods. This is the place where you can grope a petrified Great White shark tooth necklace (by Monies) for over $1k. (Seriously, about the size of the palm of my hand - I had no idea a Great White shark tooth could be that huge.) Among other things, this store carries a very nice selection of Trippens and, yes, Trippens were tried on, drooled over and petted, but not purchased.

I also enjoyed a (more affordable) boutique I stumbled into that does not have an online presence, Zephyr. In there I found a scarf that needed to come live in San Francisco. I had a quick, but delicious lunch at The Shed, a historic restaurant recommended by the very nice people at Zephyr, and famous for its chili. So of course I had to have some and, burn it did. The meal was delicious.

After a quick tour of downtown Santa Fe, it was off to the fabric store, Santa Fe Fabrics. What a great fabric store! From current novelty knits, to gorgeous Pendleton wools, from Japanese brocades, to African hand dyed pretties, I was very impressed. It was a bit overwhelming, so all I purchased was a very nice organic cotton canvas in four colors - they had quite a color selection. I thought I might use some of these at the retreat for stenciling, screen painting, or the like.

Finally, I wanted to quickly check out Canyon Road, which Marcy recommended on her Facebook page. Canyon Road, about a mile from historic downtown Santa Fe, reminds me of Carmel, but southwest style. A street packed with side-by-side art galleries, it is a visual feast for the eyes - loaded with wonderful sculptures in front of most every gallery.

I, myself, prefer Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
When I look at these sculptures, Bonnie Raitt's "Let's Give them Something to Talk About" plays in my head.
Mother...
... and Daughter

Having experienced "The Condensed Visit to Santa Fe", I rushed to Taos. It begins as a long drive through flattish desert, then you ascend into the mountains. This is when the drive becomes quite scenic. My GSP lost it's mind for a bit, so I arrived late for dinner, but not too late. We had a wonderful group meal and then moved to our "classroom" for our first gathering to learn what's what and who is who. I can already tell that this is a group of impressively creative folks.

And maybe this is the time to mention what I packed for DOL. In the end, I brought very little. After meeting with Diane Ericson in Ashland, I decided to go minimalist. The best advice she gave me was to "bring what excites you." That made a lot of sense to me. I brought a few pieces of basic, unadorned fabric, some interesting findings, and beads. I brought a few pieces of FabMo samples that are part of a collage project I want to make. I brought the beginning of an Alabama Chanin project. I brought 4 or 5 TnT patterns. But I have no definite plans on what I want to work on.

After our gathering, we retired to our rooms and I enjoyed talking with my completely delightful roomie, Gwen, who had some very impressive projects to show me. I'm hoping she'll let me post a picture or two.

I'm not sure I can post much during the retreat, especially as my room does not have wifi, but my insomnia kicked in tonight. And I am very happy to report that Gwen is not a light sleeper. ;)