MLH Day 1: My Class and Instructors Presentation

Day one with my class at Michigan League of Handweavers Summer Workshops was fantastic!  I've gotten all of my students well into stitching the Russian leaf and we are repeating the number of leaves so that everyone gets the hang of it.  By the end of the day they have started in on increasing the width of the sides of their leaf.  We will start with that again this morning but here's yesterday's progress (I have 7 students, two I have worked with before):

We also had the MLH Annual meeting last night then the Instructors Presentations:

Holly Brackman is teaching "Dyeing without a Dyepot:Disperse Dyes" (Dispersed dyeing looks cool!)

Dawn Edwards is back again, this time teaching "Explorations in Nuno-Felt and Eco-Printing

(This made me interested in eco-printing, the wrapped bundles that she showed looked like they were packages about to unlock mysteries)

Connie Lippert is teaching "Wedge Weave Fundamentals" 

(I've done one wedge weave sample in my life and I want to try again now)

Connie Lippert

Inge Dam is teaching "Tablet-Woven Side Borders" 

(WOW, below is not a great photo, but she's putting tablet cards on her warp between the reed and the heddles and changing them as she weaves to creating words, imagery and pattern. So cool and mind-blowing).

Inge Dam

Nancy McRay is teaching "Foundations of Tapestry" 

(She's my fellow East Lansing native and across the hall from me for workshopping)

Nancy is doing ArtPrize this year, vote for her number! 57203

Nancy's piece for ArtPrize

Rosalie Neilson is teaching "It's in the Warp: Color & Design in REP"

(I forget that warp-faced weaving can be so interesting, I haven't done much myself)

Rosalie Neilson REP

Wynne Mattila teaches "Finnish Runner/Cotton Rug Technique"

(Her color play also looks wonderful, she's going to write a book this year)

Wynne Mattila 

(not a great photo of one of her rugs, it was getting darker in he building)

I don't have a photo of myself, yet, but I went last and kept it short, we were running way late.  I do have to say, I tanked MLH profusely for having me teach.  Being in the Black Sheep Weavers guild from when I was little when I thought that MLH Conference and Workshops was like a weaving fairy-land of what dreams are made of and I couldn't wait to be old enough to attend.  Yes, it still is.

Then Sue and I went out for a drink.  Sue used to be in the Lansing Guild with me, but has moved up north in retirement.  So I usually only see her at MLH and we have started a tradition that we go grab a drink together one of the nights of MLH and compare notes. I'm rather excited that thanks to the Untappd beer app on my phone I hunted down "Lake Erie Monster" by the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Holland (it's out in E.L.) so we went to 8th Street Grille.  Also, get the Boom Boom Shrimp. Yum.

Again, not a great picture, but Sue pointed out to my why all of Holland has its public artwork covered up this week (month?). They are making a statement about what Holland would be like without art.  I'm not usually one for big statements and public examples, but I thought this was an interesting way of going about making the general public aware about the importance of art in their community. Great job Holland!

I swear I thought Lemonjello's Coffe Shop was open by 7am on Saturday and Sundays, but alas, it's open at 8am.  So I'm going to go backwards from yesterday, coffee in the cafeteria first, then off to Lemonjello's for some quiet and coffee before I start up teaching again this morning.