Most of our classes do a great job of accommodating different skill levels- accessible enough for beginners, but also able to meet the needs of more experienced students. But each year, a few weeks in January are set aside specifically for advanced students. These classes give students the opportunity to intensively work with top instructors and maybe explore a different aspect of their craft.
It’s a treat to see (and hear and taste!) the work that’s produced during Advanced Weeks. Some of the classes included Bowie Knives with Jim Batson and Chuck Patrick, Artisan Bread Baking with Patryk Battle, Three-dimensional Copper Enameling with Sean Alton, Woodworking: Four-drawer Dresser with Gary Pichon, Advanced Hammered Dulcimer with Ken Kolodner, and Spinning Lavish Luxury Yarns with Patsy Zawistoski.
View more photos of Things We Make on Flickr.
Internediate to Advanced Chip Carving with Wayne Barton
Seamless, Nuno-felted Jacket with Linda Veilleux
We rock and ROLLED all week in Linda Veilleux’s Seamless, Nuno-felted Jacket class. Laying out wool for an entire long sleeved seamless coat that includes 45% shrinkage is no simple task, even for a short person like me. But thanks to our talented and patient teacher, we all are going home with finished coats – that FIT. She made the calculations easy with her computer program for the math impaired, and failed to notice our figure faults when taking our measurements. We shingled out pounds of wool onto multiple yards of silk then applied the magic ingredients, hot water, soap and elbow grease, lots of elbow grease.
Learn for yourself how much fun Nuno-felting is! Geri Forkner will be teaching What’s New with Nuno: New Directions in Felting, April 29- May 5.
Enjoy photos of the process of this week’s class in Nuno-felting:
Laying out the full sized pattern
Laying out silk fabric
Rolling!
Fulling
Modeling the finished jacket
This gives you an idea of the shrinkage!
Well, as many of you know, there is always something new in the works here at the School. This past week, I visited the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta to help install a Folk School exhibit featuring work from our resident artists, instructors
and students. This is a great honor for the School and a wonderful opportunity to promote our unique philosophies in noncompetitive learning and the work of our talented artists. The installation will run the entire month of January and will culminate with our first off-site auction, the Atlanta Fine Craft and Art Auction. This auction is free to the public and will be held at the Woodruff Arts Center on Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The Coca-Cola exhibit is not open for public viewing but you can see several installation shots here. I hope that you will be able to join us for the auction on the 4th. Click here to see a full listing and photos of all the items that will be available at the auction. I can’t think of anything more fun than getting a dose of the Folk School in the big city. Someone could write a fable…
Last week we ended 2011 with the celebration of music and dance in Winter Dance Week. Participants learned a variety of dances like Scandinavian, English Country, Morris, Rapper Sword, contra and square dances- with breaks for group singing and jamming. The week culminated in the annual New Year’s Eve bash, where some of the classes got to perform what they’ve learned in just a week.
The Rapper Sword class practices impossible looking figures in their sets.
We look forward to students returning this weekend for the first classes of 2012! Students will jump right in for a weekend immersion in painting, felting, dyeing, blacksmithing, fiddle playing, woodcarving, and more. Our new catalog, which covers all of 2012, will be mailing mid-January. Registration for these additional classes will be open January 17. Come be creative with us in 2012!
Our 2012 catalog will reach your mailbox by mid-January. The cover features work by photography instructor, Don McGowan, "Sunrise Over the Meadow- Orchard House."
by Anna Shearouse, Marketing Assistant on December 15, 2011
in Simple Gifts
This afternoon, many of our older citizens gathered in the Olive Dame Campbell Dining Hall for the annual Old Folks Party. They celebrated the holidays, visited with each other, shared stories and memories, and enjoyed music, games, and a delicious meal. For many of them, their parents or grandparents were responsible in part for the Folk School being located in Brasstown. When the school started in 1925, hundreds of local residents pledged their support through physical labor, teams of mules, money, and even land donations. Many of the skills we teach at the Folk School today were passed down through these generations, often grandparents teaching children weaving, wood carving, or chair making.
The Old Folks Party is a tradition that goes back to the beginning of the Folk School. While our old folks this afternoon reminisced about folk dancing they did in Keith House as kids, party attendees in 1926 might have shared childhood memories of the Civil War in this area.
Old Folks Party, 1926, Log Museum at the Folk School
Enjoying a feast at the Old Folks Party, 1926
Playing bingo and sharing a meal at the Old Folks Party, 2011
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