WORKSHOPS.

BASKETRY WITH JUDITH SAUNDERS

Explore traditional and non-traditional materials used in basket-making with mixed media artisan Judith Saunders.

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3 Day Workshop: Whether you are making your first basket or you are an experienced weaver, you will have the opportunity to explore a variety of materials, techniques and designs. You mayt hen choose to spend your three days creating one larger more involved basket or you may choose to create several smaller baskets. The choice will be yours. If you are an experienced weaver and have your own tools you may bring and use them. If you are anew weaver I will provide all tools necessary to complete your baskets for use during the workshop. The most important items for you to bring are enthusiasm and willingness to experiment

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5 Day Workshop: Create baskets using a variety of techniques suited to your individual interests and experience level, whether this means you are making your very first basket or adding depth to your current level of expertise. You help determine whether you want to spend your time making one or two larger more complex baskets or whether you prefer to make more smaller baskets allowing for more experimentation. Judith will guide each participant so that individual goals can be met. If your hands need a rest, you can spend time enjoying Judith’s extensive collection of baskets and books that will be available.

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A Norfolk, VA native, Judith retired from the Norfolk Public School System, following thirty years as an art educator. She is currently a member of the National Basketry Organization, the Handweavers Guild of America, as well as several regional associations and guilds. She has participated in annual conferences and conventions, taking classes with nationally known weavers from across the country. She has taught basketry workshops in Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania including most recently at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.

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Judith has had work accepted in the following juried exhibitions: Basket Trends at the Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center in Athens, OH in 2004; the “New Waves” Exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center of VA in 2005; Basketry International 2006 at the Dairy Barn and the Northeast Basket Guild’s “Waves of Tradition” Exhibition at Pawtucket, RI 2006, receiving their Handweavers Guild of America Award; and the 2010 HGA Convergence Small Expressions Exhibition. Judith received an invitation to have her work included in the National Basketry Organization’s “All Things Considered IV” Exhibition held in conjunction with the 2008 NBO Convention at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and she was juried into the 2015 NBO “All Things Considered VIII” Exhibition in St. Paul, MN.

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Judith’s work is included in the Contemporary Basketry Artists section of the book Plaited Basketry with Birch Bark by Vladimir Yarish, Flo Hoppe and Jim Widess and in the NBO 2016 Winter Quarterly publication where her work is featured on the cover and includes her member profile.

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 Materials Fee: $50 for 3 day, $75 for 5 day.

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BASKETRY WORKSHOPS WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE ARTS COUNCIL ROOM OF THE HIGHLAND CENTER IN MONTEREY

61 Highland Center Ln. Monterey, VA

​BARN QUILTS WITH MARGIE BOESCH

 

Students will learn to design, draft and paint a 2’ x 2’ barn quilt. We will also tour Highland County Barn Quilts, including some of which are not seen from the road.

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Margie Boesch has been painting barn quilts in her studio in Highland County since 2010, She combines her background as a quilt maker with an enjoyment of using color in paintings in order to create barn quilts that bring attention to the old barns and other structures in this beautiful county.


The barn quilt painting studio in the beautiful Blue Grass Valley was once a maple sugar house and is not air conditioned. While very comfortable in the morning, it heats up in the afternoon. For this reason, this workshop will be held from 9 am – 12 pm and while it will run for 5 days, it is priced at the 3 day rate of $150.

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Materials Fee: No additional fee

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BARN QUILT PAINTING WILL TAKE PLACE AT

2806 Meadowdale Rd., Monterey, VA

​STAINED GLASS WITH LIZ DEVENNY

Using the copper foil method of stained glass construction, students will select a pattern; cut, grind and shape glass pieces, apply copper foil, solder and finish one or more projects.

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Liz DeVenny has been a stained glass artist and teacher for 13 years, eight of which have been in Highland County.  Anna Maria Weierick, Liz’s former student and experienced assistant has four years of experience with stained glass.

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Materials Fee: $25

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STAINED GLASS CLASSES WILL TAKE PLACE AT

9145 Highland Turnpike, McDowell, VA

​PAINTING IN WOOD (MARQUETRY) WITH DON WILLIAMS

Painting With Wood, a technique craftsmen usually call marquetry, is the method by which we will assemble a pattern or image created by sawing a stack of several sheets of wood veneer with an ultra-fine jeweler's saw to cut out the pattern or image.  Then using pieces of the different colored veneers sawn from the pack the composition will be assembled and glued to a wooden panel or box. 

 

Several design options will be provided, ranging from your initials to a simple landscape and many points in between.  

This workshop is designed specifically to introduce newcomers to this creative technique that goes back several centuries. 

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Don Williams has almost fifty years experience in furniture restoration and related crafts, retiring at the end of 2012 as Senior Furniture Conservator at the Museum Conservation Institute of the Smithsonian Institution, where he was a creator and Director of the Masters Degree Program in Furniture Conservation.  He trained as a fairly traditional craftsman in furniture restoration and foundry pattern making and metal casting, and after trying out Political Science/Economic History and Architecture majors received his BA in Technology of Artistic and Historic Artifacts from the University of Delaware. 

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He is the expert co-author of Saving Stuff (Simon&Schuster 2005); the lead author of  To Make As Perfectly As Possible - Roubo on Marquetry (Lost Art Press 2013), and With All The Precision Possible - Roubo on Furniture Making (Lost Art Press 2016); and the sole author of Virtuoso - The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of H.O. Studley (Lost Art Press 2015). He has at least seven historic craft books (three currently in progress) and a handful of novels in the queue for the future.  

 

Don is a past Chair of the Wooden Artifacts Group of the American Institute for Conservation, served on the US Senate Curatorial Committee, the Executive Council of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers and the advisory boards of several museums.

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Materials Fee: $15 without a wooden box and $30 with a wooden box to mount your design.

​ECO PRINTING WITH THERESA BROWN

Ecoprinting : the collecting of Nature’s plants, leaves and flowers and through a natural steaming process, imprinting them onto the fabric to create colors, designs and faux textures. Natural pieces are the actual colors released by the tannin in the plant on that day.  Those Colors vary with the plant, time of day, moon cycles, weather patterns and seasons of the year. 


Theresa Brown is a long time professional portrait artist,  painter and fiber artist whose career embraces many areas of the Arts. She attended East Carolina University, majoring in Commercial Art and Printmaking.  Years of painting, printmaking and color work led her to explore the fiber arts. Using many similar skills and accumulated knowledge, she evolved as a hand painter and ecoprinter on leather and fabric. She uses natural dyes and low impact synthetic dyes and merge them into unique, beautiful designs on silk, wool and leather. She transforms the finished fabric into artisanal clothing, accessories and art.

 

She has taught workshops at many Fiber Shows and art centers around the country as well as at her own studio.  She is also a certified practitioner of the art of forest relaxation known as “Shinrin Yoku” (which translates to “Forest Bathing.” ) and strive to create art that is touched by the influence of Nature. She is proud of creating everything, by hand, that comes from the studio of The Silk Thread. Her fiber work has been featured in international publications such as “No Serial Number” and “Belle Armoire”.

boards of several museums.

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Materials Fee: $25- students can expect to complete two silk scarves and a handkerchief

​THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY WITH ELIZABETH LARSON

Learn how to create stimulating and memorable travel photographs. We will take daily trips out into the community and surrounding areas nearby. We will be documenting the local culture,architecture, natural environment, and of course the people in order to create the true travel experience. Lighting, composition,exposure, and more will be discussed in the classroom as well as while we are out on location. For photographers of all levels, however it will be handy to know the basic features on your digital SLR or mirror less camera beforehand.

 

You will need a camera in which to switch into manual settings.Although we won’t have much time to discuss photo editing, I will be happy to offer some advise on this as needed

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Elizabeth Larson has been a professional photographer for 30 years this year. She specializes in wedding photography, lifestyles,portraiture, travel, editorial, and business branding photography. Elizabeth is a native of Virginia, however she relocated to North Carolina in 2005. Elizabeth has been teaching photography workshops about once a year at the prestigious John C. Campbell Folk School since 2011 and has taught several local workshops as well in NC. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, gardening, cooking, journaling, live music, kayaking, and the great outdoors. She’s a member of Professional Photographers of North Carolina, American Society of Media Photographers, Wedding & Portrait Society, and the Guilford Horticulture Society. To view more of her work, please visit her websitewww.elarsonphoto.comand her Instagram pagewww.instagram.com/elizabethlarsonphotography

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Materials Fee: No additional fee

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