French Flair with Silk Scarves...

In the last post, you got a peek at the classroom, and met Dayle Doroshow, who taught the mixed media journaling class that I took in France.  I promised to start introducing you to my classmates tonight, and since the only group photo we seem to have taken was up the street from La Cascade, at Ann Mason's silk painting studio, I guess I'll start the introductions there.  The class at Ann's was an optional extra, so a couple of the gals missed it.  That's okay, you'll meet Anne Beach and Beverlee Stafford in the next post.  Note:  I didn't take time to clean up and crop the photos, since it's late and I have to be on a job site crazy early in the morning, but I think they'll do.

Ann Mason has a studio a few doors up the street.  Not only does she create beautiful hand painted silk scarves, she teaches others the techniques.   I wish Ann had a website, but alas there isn't any way to show you her beautiful work.  Unless of course you click the link to La Cascade above and go take Dayle's class, or the one Ann and her son, Steve, will be teaching next summer.

Ann with the class, from left to right:
Judy Belcher, Julie Eakes, me in back and Ruth Krug down in front, Nona Flores, Cynthia Tinapple
Some of us just made square samplers, and others went all-out and did scarves.   I want to be a woman who wears scarves, but I don't seem to have the knack, or the flair, or maybe it's just that I rarely wear anything dressier than paint rags, and a colorful scarf would just get lost against the spatters on my shirt.  Sigh.  I made squares.

Judy and Cynthia both worked on precise geometric patterns.  There are little tubes of resist that you can squeeze on first, and then the colors won't bleed into each other.  

Ann was such a gentle teacher.  She guided us as much as we needed, and left us to experiment as much as we liked.

Julie as serious student.

Julie with an impish grin.  This is the real Julie.  

Samplers drying in the sun.  We each started with one to just sort of doodle around on, to see how the dye behaved, and then we made our second project.  I'm not sure which doodle is mine, but my project square is on the far right.  I used black resist, and ended up with a sort of stained glass effect.  I almost didn't take this class, as I wanted to finish something from the journaling class, but I'm glad I changed my mind.  I've occasionally thought about trying silk dyes, but didn't want to invest a lot of money in something I wasn't sure I would really enjoy.  Especially after learning about the resist, which comes in clear, black and metallics, I definitely want to explore this medium more.

Roger and his little dog, Lukie, peeked in on the class, and we caught up with them afterwards.  If you want to know what's going on in town, apparently these two, who are always on patrol, know it all.  Now, if only I spoke either French or Dog, I'd know it, too.

So, that's the merry band I spent my summer vacation singing with.  Really.  We sang.  In the car, in the classroom, at the table.  Even me.  Turns out, most of the class loves musical theater, and most know at least half of the words to all the best songs.  Some of us even knew the tunes.  Even me.  Not that I could carry the tune, but I knew it.  It's probably a good thing we went on most of our field trips with the windows rolled up.  

Next week, I'll share some more information on just who these women are.  All of them are talented, creative artists, and many of them have websites you'll want to know about.  Check back on Tuesday morning for an Etsy shop owner who can supply you with the coolest flea market finds for your art projects (she picked up lots in France, though I'm not sure she's sharing that loot), and a beader who has taken this mixed media class FOUR times.  She said we were the funnest ever.  Actually, she said something like that, but with proper grammar.  

Have a great weekend!  If you need something to read while you kick back and sip your sangria, don't forget the summer issue of 365Being is available at 365being.com.  You can order a hard copy, which will get to you in time to read next weekend, or purchase it in PDF and download it immediately.