Saturday in Michigan

Hopefully I can make this a short post, it was a busy day, I’m tired, and I have one more full day of seminars to teach before I make my way home to NJ.

I started the morning, picking up where I left off last night, by doing the final judging of the fashion show.  Having seen the pieces on the runway, made it so much easier to do my job.  I was through judging, writing comments on all of the garments, within 3 hours.  I did a few quick shots of the gallery before I left to go to lunch.  There were some lovely pieces in the show, and I was pleased with the results and the winners.

Barbara VanDyke wove the fabric and constructed the beautiful white and lt. blue Chanel Style coat below, with a hand painted lining.  I gave it Best in Show, it was a perfect blending of handwoven fabric, classic design, exquisite construction skills, and surface design applications.

One of the things I love about traveling, is seeing things I don’t see at home.  I remember walking through Grinnell College Campus at the Midwest Weavers Conference last month in Iowa, and having Robyn Spady stop suddenly to ask if I was also seeing these tiny blinking lights all around.  She had never seen fireflies!  I remember the last time I taught at this conference in Michigan, it may have been 2003, and I was taken with the black squirrels.  I’d never seen black squirrels before.  We have bucket loads of grey squirrels back in NJ, but not black ones.  I was hoping to see them again, I wasn’t disappointed, and towards the end of the afternoon, a lovely black squirrel posed for me at the base of a tree.

I was able to breeze quickly through the vendors, picking up some beautifully dyed silk hankies for spinning, though I will use them for felting, from River’s Edge Weaving Studio in Grand Ledge, MI.  And I did get to the Holland Art Center to see all the exhibits.  I got lots of photos there, but I’ll save them for another post.