Greetings from Missou…

I made it to Missouri, after bad weather, and delays and an almost three hour drive to Columbia from the Kansas City Airport.  I’m staying in a lovely home in a very rural part of Columbia, I’d love to see this area in the summer.

The workshop, a two day vest class for the Columbia Weavers and Spinners is actually being hosted by the University of Missouri Fibers Department.  I met the head of the Fibers MissouriDay1CDepartment Jo Stealy, so helpful and welcoming.  The space is amazing, high stainless steel tables everywhere, an indigo vat fermenting in the women’s bathroom, dyeing supplies stacked on shelving everywhere, looms and fibers and wonderful academic energy all around us.

The workshop participants are so delightful, I love midwesterners, hard workers, so kind and careful, and they are all doing amazing vests, there is one who brought her hand made felt, which of MissouriDay1Bcourse will make an organic, more free form garment than the woven counterparts.  Tomorrow they jump into sewing, when I left them for the evening, everyone was cut out and ready to go.

MissouriDay1AWe were able to hang my show and tell garments from one of the upper cabinets, so there is a row of my work at the back of the room, it is great to see everything hanging like that instead of jammed onto a garment rack.

My son called me tonight on my cell phone, I was so surprised to hear from him, what a treat, he gets so few calls from Boot Camp.  I’ll be able to hug him five days from now when I fly to South Carolina for his graduation.

I’m watching the severe weather alerts for back home, popping up on my screen.  Flooding looks bad, and wind gusts of up to 72 MPH.  Scary.  It is just cold and rainy here, but we are safe inside in a fiber studio doing what we love best.  Made me long for my days back at Montclair State…

Opportunities…

Brochures are out for the Newark Museum, Sievers and more!

If you live in the Northern NJ/New York area, and are free Tuesday afternoons, starting March 23, I’ll be teaching an eight week class called Jumpstart Your Sewing Skills at the Newark Museum Arts Workshop.  Here are the particulars:

Jumpstart Your Sewing Skills
with Daryl Lancaster
Is the sewing machine in your closet covered with dust bunnies? Have you
spent a fortune on alterations lately? Is your closet packed with clothing that
is slightly outdated, that maybe needs altering, but is too good to give away?
Then now is the time to dust off that machine and get re-acquainted. This
course is structured to meet individual needs and help with everything from
simple alterations to full garment make-overs. Learn to sew clothes from
scratch or tailor for that special elegant touch. Machines provided (if you don’t have one); course
limited to eight. All levels
Eight Tuesdays, March 23 – May 11, 1 – 4 pm
Member: $189, Non-member: $210 Materials: $10

If you are looking for a summer vacation in August, come to Sievers Fiber School on the lovely Washington Island off the northern coast of Wisconsin, or come to Harrisville Designs in beautiful New Hampshire, both locations are wonderful for escaping the heat of the summer.

Shadow_PlayLGSievers Fiber School: A Wearable Extravaganza (August 29-September 3) – Class Fee $ 380

Daryl Lancaster Wrap your body in clothing from your own hands.  This is a terrific class for those wanting to learn to fit and sew clothing from their own handwoven, hand-printed, dyed, quilted, felted, commercial or other special fabrics, as well as those more experienced students wanting more polished and professional results.  You will construct a basic unlined jacket with pre-washed fabric you bring to class, custom-fit to yourself, while learning all sorts of inspiring techniques to make your clothing reflect your creativity.  You can expect to gain confidence in your garment construction skills, no matter what level, and will learn to work with your chosen fabric.  Daryl’s goal is to have participants look at sewing as a creative process.  Skills will be taught using samples, handouts, storyboards, Power-Point presentations and demonstrations.  A supply list will be sent to you prior to class.  Materials fee of $35 includes twill tape, interfacing, pattern paper and extensive bound notebook.  (Repeating students who have already made the jacket may opt to make a pieced vest or bring their own pattern/s.)  Sewing machine in good working order and some minimal basic sewing skills required.  A limited number of sewing machines are available to rent for class use.  For all levels.

Harrisville Designs: A Wearable Extravaganza (August 16-20) – Class Fee $ 435

Daryl Lancaster Wrap your body in clothing from your own hands. This is a terrific class for those wanting to learn to fit and sew clothing from their handwoven, hand printed, dyed, quilted, felted or other special fabric, as well as for those more experienced students wanting polished and professional results. Students will construct a basic unlined jacket, from their own fabric, custom fit to themselves while learning all sorts of inspiring techniques to make their garments reflect their creativity. This class is designed to teach creativity and technique. Students who have already made a jacket with me in any other class may opt to bring their own patterns and agenda.


As I travel around, I have lots of requests for the jacket class, and this is a great opportunity to make my classic jacket, or even better, if you have already made my  basic jacket anywhere else in the country, you are welcome to come and bring your own patterns, fabric (it isn’t necessary to be a handweaver to take advantage of any of my classes listed here) and work on your own agenda!

Staggering…

OK, I’m really really tired.  I’m not even sure I can write with any clarity at all.  Yet I’m almost too tired to even sleep…

slatermillThe weekend was wonderful.  I taught one of my favorite classes, on color and inspiration, and the location was so appropriate and so special.  I gave two workshops to the Weavers Guild of Rhode Island.  I’ve taught for them before, and was thrilled to see so many old friends.  The guild has moved to new quarters since I’ve taught there, in the most wonderful of all places, considered the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the beautifully restored Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI.

“…in 1793, when Samuel Slater, an immigrant, built the first successful water powered, cotton spinning mill in North America on the banks of the Blackstone River at Pawtucket village, with the talents of local artisans and the entrepreneurial verve of Moses Brown.”

The Slater Mill is now home to many of the area fiber guilds, and the space was so filled with history, wall murals, and ghosts of young women who worked so hard to build American industry.  I felt privileged and proud to be teaching there.

YarnSaturday’s class was on Color and Inspiration, and after throwing out some yarn, the participants did some fun exercises, ending up with beautiful warps inspired by magazine pages.

I keeping this blog unusually short, since I’m completely brain dead.  I have only three days to get ready before I head out again to Missouri, and I spent all day today at the Frances Irwin Guild meeting listening to an amazing program with Hitoshi Ujiie, who is the Director of the Philadelphia University Center for Excellence of Digital Inkjet Printing for Textiles.  Hitoshi gave a program called Digital Printing on Textiles, and he brought the prototype for a new digital printing system available for the consumer from Epson, after April 1st.  How funny that I should be in Rhode Island yesterday, in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and be in western NJ today, listening to a presentation about the future of digital textile printing.

So, enjoy the photos of some of the participants warp wraps and the photos that inspired them.

Inspiration7Inspiration6Inspiration5Inspiration4Inspiration3Inspiration2Inspiration1Inspiration8

On the Road again…

Just a quick post, I’m all packed, and ready to head north to Rhode Island for the weekend.  I’ll be giving a seminar on color and a workshop on closures to the Weavers Guild up there.  This is one of those routes where you can’t get there from here.  It is impossible to travel I95 along the Connecticut coast for 150 miles without hitting traffic.  And this is Friday afternoon, and I have to cross the Hudson.  There is no good way to get there.

So I have a book on tape (actually my iTouch, downloaded from the library) and I’ll take a Vivarin shortly so I don’t do something stupid like fall asleep while I’m driving, and I’m on my way.  I expect to return late Sunday night.  This one is a skid in and skid out kind of trip.  After the last Marathon, it is a blessing.

Fortune Cookie Says…

Actually being Arizona, it was a fortune Taco, but more about that later…

I’m starting to get letters.  I apologize for leaving everyone hanging, but I made it home and haven’t had two minutes to breathe.  Are you surprised?

I left Tucson in a pouring rain, felt like NJ in the spring.  I saw it as a sign the universe didn’t want me to become too in love with the warm dry weather in Tucson.  🙂 The final four days of workshops were a terrific experience, I had some great students, and I thought I’d be exhausted by the end, maybe not at my best, but I found that the opposite was actually true.  When I first go out on the road to teach, after being home a couple of months, I find it takes me some time to get warmed up and to engage the part of my brain that takes over and makes sense when I talk.  After teaching for 15 days straight, I found I had a sort of groove I settled into, and found that the thoughts came easily, and repeating certain workshops only made me more efficient in the material and gave me opportunities to try a few new angles.  The last couple of workshops I taught in Tucson provided me with an opportunity to talk about an area with the students I hadn’t actually defined before in any of my presentations.

Sidebar:

Four years ago, I finished teaching at the Grand Rapids Convergence, feeling like I was at the top of my game so to speak, and yet feeling like I had reached a plateau of sorts in my work and my creativity.  I needed someone to bounce ideas off of, and someone who could give me some guidance as to what I direction I should consider next.  That person showed up outside a Starbucks in Grand Rapids, waving to me through the window, Carol Westfall, well known and respected fiber artist and my college professor.  We have remained friends since I met her as a freshman in college in 1974.

Carol and I had lunch back in NJ when we returned home, and I dutifully brought my portfolio with me, and we sat for awhile, while she looked through it.  I was struggling with direction, with where to take my work, and she finally closed the book and looked at me, and said, “Daryl, when was the last time you went to a museum or show in NYC?”  I was surprised by the question, I hadn’t really thought much about it, and truthfully, up until that point, my track record for seeing shows and visiting museums was abysmal.  I sat alone all day in the studio and made stuff.  Carol looked at a couple of pieces I had brought and instantly made reference to other fiber artists that my work seemed to be derivative of, though I’d never even heard of these artists.  Point taken.  I hadn’t been to a show in ages, I didn’t have any idea who was working in fiber, who was bringing fiber and art together, and what they were saying.

Carol couldn’t and wouldn’t tell me where to go next because it is a journey only I can take.  What she did was hand me a subway map and a bus ticket of sorts, and told me to have fun exploring.  And explore I did.  I’ve seen more and experienced more art, fiber, fashion, and cultural experiences in the past four years than in all the time since I attended college in the 70’s.  That’s probably a stretch, but that’s what it feels like.  You can’t produce anything in a vacuum.  (My physics genius of a daughter might argue, but I think for me, that’s a pretty accurate statement).

Fast forward to Tucson.

When I used to do craft fairs, the most often asked question was, “How long does it take?”.  We’ve all heard it.  I never hear that question anymore, because I am with others like me who are involved in a process that has no time table and no way to actually calculate how long it takes.  What I hear most often now, is the question, “What can I make with this fabric?”  It is very common, and I encourage it, for students to bring things they are having problems with, and need feedback on, and more often than not, the “problem” is a piece of yardage they just need someone to tell them what to  make from it…

There’s the problem in a nutshell.  What I’d make is so very different than what they might make.  My skills, body type, area of the country where I live, climate, and body image all affect my choices when I decide what to do with yardage.  And I don’t force a solution.  I go out, and I look around, I see what’s out there, in magazines, on fashion blogs, in museums of historical costuming, in paintings, and in stores.  I know what I think looks fun and playful on my body, keeping in mind I’m not my pink haired 17 year old daughter, but a 55 year old woman, a breast cancer survivor (8 years last week!) and 8 years past menopause.  (OK, I’m still in serious denial about the four inch heels, but nobody is perfect!)

So, after 15 days straight teaching, I was feeling a little like my college professor, Carol.  I turned to the student and said, when was the last time you went shopping and looked at what was out there?  By now I had a crowd of students, and the words catalog and LLBean were muttered by more than a few of them.  We are so disconnected from our bodies after menopause, we have no clue what looks good, what feels good, or what makes us happy if we don’t go out looking.  That evening, Diane, my hostess and I went shopping at an open air upscale mall near her.  We hit Talbots, J.Jill, Anthropologie, Cache and Coldwater Creek, and a couple other stores that looked interesting.  We found all sorts of jackets, skirts, dresses, pants, and tops.  We found interesting collars, sleeve treatments, and yoked pants.  We tried on everything that looked curious, Diane found she looked good in short jackets, and I liked the 3/4 sleeves on me.  Who knew?  We bought nothing, but absorbed lots of wonderful information about what to make.

So I came home with all sorts of fun ideas and shapes crawling around in my head.  I can’t wait to cut into some fabric.  My answer to the student about what to make from her fabric would have been very different before I went on my shopping expedition vs. after.  Which brings us to the fortune cookie taco.  The class did take-out for lunch, calling in an order to a local deli.  Each of us had a fortune taco in the bottom of our bag, and one of the students squealed in delight as she pulled out her fortune and read it to the class.

El perro que no sale no encuentra hueso.  A dog that won’t go outside finds no bones.

That became the class mantra.  I enjoyed this class a lot, each student brought something different to the table, some different experience, fabric, or agenda.  And I felt I brought them to a bridge and helped push them across.

packagesWe left Tucson in the rain, and I made my way west to LA, where the sun was shining and the TSA security lines made Disneyland look like a Ghost Town.  Once at the gate, I just sat and knit.  It felt good to be alone.  I arrived in Newark after midnight, the airport there was deserted and all the bustling businesses were closed.  As it should be.  My husband and I drove home, the roads were dark and wet from the melting snow, and I struggled to get to sleep with my mind already on Monday’s agenda.  There was laundry, unpacking, banking, bills to pay.  There was a stack of mail, and two weeks worth of emails to sort.  I had to get my car reinspected. And orders.  I had 21 book orders to fill, that’s printing, binding, and packing.  The whole load went out to the post office this morning.  So if you ordered books or interfacing from me on this trip, hang on, they are coming.

I only have a couple of days turn around before I leave again, this time for Rhode Island.  Meanwhile, Candiss came last night, to hang for a couple of days between her shows in Baltimore and Philadelphia.  My house was in decent order, much to my complete delight, and my family even vacuumed while I was gone.  The only thing is no one can figure out what happened to the oven mitts.  They seem to have vanished.  Maybe the dog stole them and we will find them outside after the spring melt…

I’ve heard from three of the eleven shows I entered before I left for the southwest.  I was rejected from all three.  Big sigh…  Maybe I’ll get into a couple of the remaining eight…  It all works out the way it needs to…

So, to my classes on this trip, thank you for the privilege of spending time with you and getting to know you a bit.  Go outside and look for bones.  You might find an oven mitt or two…