Penland class begins

Yesterday (Sunday, the 15th of August) was such a full day. I drove to Penland on the 14th but only moved my things into my room, nothing into the studio. So first thing yesterday morning I drove over to the Lily Loom House to begin the many treks up the stairs to the third floor where our class is being held. Lots of trips up and down those steps! I got quite a few of the boxes upstairs before Meredith, my studio assistant, was free from her early morning meetings to become a pack animal. BUT she took up the heaviest loads of all. I felt somewhat justified in eating the extra calories at the great Penland meals yesterday after the "stair-master" workout I got. Here's one view of some of the things brought up from the car...

These were all essential things to bring along with me but hauling it all up to the third floor became increasingly tedious (and hot) as the morning progressed!

Here's a view of the space before setting up.

The first meeting was yesterday afternoon at 5 when all students, instructors, studio assistants and any others on campus were invited to a welcome from the Director of Penland and brief talks by others of the staff to orient us to the two weeks to come. Next was dinner followed quite quickly by an instructors' meeting with the Director and several staff members at 7 p.m. Then our classes began at 8:30 p.m. We stayed in class until around 10:30 p.m. and then, dodging the results of the heavy rain that had fallen during the two hours we were in class, tapestry class folks wandered to their rooms--some more slowly than others because of no flashlights. That proved to be quite a challenge because of the rain... lots of puddles in unexpected places!

This morning was full of activity with safety orientation by the studio coordinator and warping the copper pipe looms. We didn't begin weaving until after lunch--beginning with basic meet and separate, even for those who have some experience with tapestry.

Some views of the room we're in and tapestry work underway--