Sunday, June 20, 2010

Working at Lillian Smith Center

Today is my first full day at the Center. I've gotten the floor loom set up and I've read through notes for the paper. I also walked down the road this morning with my camera to take a few photos.
So... please share my first day's experience through my eyes.

Peeler Cottage where I'm staying, around 7:45 this morning.
I walked down the gravel road toward the entrance. Since this is a dead-end no one should be driving down the road unless they have business at the Center. My cottage is near the end of the road so I won't hear much traffic at all.
Lillian E. Smith's memorial site includes a ruin of a chimney and also a stone marking her ashes.
The stone has a metal plaque... bronze, maybe?
I find the quotation on the plaque very meaningful. Memory is all we have of anything, isn't it?
The old chimney has vines growing in the fireplace creating a wonderful, graceful curve.
As I walked down the road the fog was lifting as the sun was rising higher causing beams of "heavenly light" (as my friend, Diane, calls these beams)...
I took several photos of this heavenly light... these two were the best.

On the walk I noticed many trees that had been "bound" by vines growing around them... these are just a few...
Here's the building in which the Common Room has internet connection...
...inside is lots of comfortable space to read, think and converse.
This afternoon I worked on the Penland class, the "...and other weft-faced adventures" part of the description. As I sat on the porch having an afternoon snack and caffeine I noticed the ridge line with the sun shining through the leaves. The tree trunks were dark against the light, the leaf litter in the foreground was rich and warm. I did a quick pencil and crayon sketch to indicate placement areas for color to be used in a pick and pick sample.
I was able to weave about 5 1/2" inches of this sampler--even with starting the weaving around 3:30 p.m. I'll finish it tomorrow afternoon and begin the next sampling for the class.

If I can be only a fraction as productive as this weaver while I'm here at the Lillian Smith Center retreat I'll be very happy! (Oh... maybe Daddy Long-Legs don't weave! The thought counts, maybe)

2 comments:

  1. What a lovely place for a retreat! Your weaving captures the colors perfectly of the tree trunks.

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  2. I am happy to live vicariously thru you while you are there!!! I feel my blood pressure dropping already...

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