I made it through the conference! I gave my final two seminars on Sunday. The morning seminar topic was Photographing Your Work, and I am always thrilled when students come up afterwords and tell me how much they learned and how they will record images of their work, very differently, as a result of my seminar.
The conference began winding down after lunch. Exhibits closed, work was returned, last minute sales at the vendors. I returned to my classroom to prepare for the last seminar. This is the one I spent the last 6 months researching, the topic was Website Success. I’ll have the monograph for sale on my website when I return from all my adventures. I didn’t want to offer the monograph for sale until I ran the seminar, and I am really happy with how it read.
Anyone who has ever taken a seminar from me can tell you, you will probably end up with way more information than you th0ught you’d need, but I always think that more information is better than not enough. Website design is one of those topics where you can attend classes for years, and buy thousands of pounds of manuals and still not make a dent in it, and when you finally do, the standards and language change and you have to start all over again. That said, I was happy with the amount of information I disseminated in a mere 2 1/2 hours, and I only ran 8 minutes over. The fact that they saved the most technologically sophisticated seminar for the end of the conference when everyone who attended was practically brain dead, was pretty funny. Still, all 10 participants stayed with me, payed attention, asked questions, and seemed like they were understanding. If there is anyone out there who attended the Website Success seminar and would like to give me feedback, I’d appreciate an email. theweaver@weaversew.com. Did it meet your expectations, was it too much information or not enough, was it entertaining, were you struggling to understand?
I left the conference about 15 minutes after the last seminar, I was picked up by one of the conference attendees who lives locally. Sue drove me back to her house, and served me a lovely dinner, fresh salad, fresh veggies, wine, and great company. We chatted for awhile, and I did something I haven’t done since I was a kid. I went to bed at 8pm. I was exhausted…
Robyn Spady called me about 9pm to let me know that serious weather issues grounded some planes and delayed others, she finally managed to get out of Grand Rapids after a two hour airport delay. Some of the instructors traveling Sunday night ended up having to spend an additional night in Grand Rapids. I was very very grateful for my cozy bed, excellent dinner, and early bedtime.
I woke around 1am to a wicked thunder storm. It lasted for a couple of hours, and then I went back to sleep around 4am. Since I had already had a decent amount of sleep, I drifted into one of those sleep levels where you dream outrageous things. There were people flying in my dream, without the benefit of airplanes, crazy costumes, and then I was in an airport where everyone was dressed in red and gray, which you should know were the colors of my parochial school uniform. I wore red and gray plaid for 6 years. And on Wednesday I am traveling to South Carolina for a reunion of sorts with some of my classmates and their spouses from my parochial school days. I must have red and gray on my mind.
An easy early morning flight, and I am now in NJ. I dove right into unpacking, and bookkeeping, banking, and filling orders for monographs and interfacings that were ordered at the conferences.
Last Saturday I breezed through many of the MLH exhibits, all held at the Holland Arts Council, I wish I’d had more time to view them, but I was grateful for what time I had, and that I could grab a few shots of the installations.
This exhibit is a retrospective of 50 years of handweaving from the Michigan League of Handweavers. It was a terrific exhibit, through September 18th, and really grasped the range of styles and disciplines of the handweaver over the last 50 years. Enjoy the images…
Photographing is a great semminar. That is another reason I had to get a dressform!
Glad to hear you made it back with no more incidents and got some much needed rest.
I’m amazed at all the energy that you have going from one conference to another. You’re one special person.
I just received the last two monographs that you have. Thanks. I’ll buy your new one, “Website Success” when it’s ready.