John C Campbell

I just returned from a wonderful week at John C Campbell Folk School.  I taught the class - Playing with Surface Design, I also call it a Surface Design Buffet.  This workshop gives students a taste of many techniques to enhance the surface of fabric.  Students can choose to do a project with the many samples they create or just keep it as a sample.

 The weather was with us. Some of the techniques do very well in strong sun and strong sun we had! One of the things we had so much fun with was rusting.  It usually takes my things a couple of days to rust but with such strong sun and the fabric sealed in plastic, it was a couple of hours. We became rusting fools, rusting everything in sight and this was just the beginning.

 We are lucky to have a Blacksmith studio right down the road and part of the campus.  The have a big bin outside with discarded iron, most of it rusted and ready to be used. Yvonne used a lot of that rust to do the table runner below. She also painted and stamped it - a gorgeous piece.  She plans to quilt it and I hope she sends pictures.

 Yvonne treated us all to t-shirts to rust.  Judy rusted hers and then did some spray painting using leaves as a resist.

 I was able to do one also. The Blacksmith class at one point was cutting out animal shapes and this was a discard. Can you see a fish in the middle?

 Winki was our "resident ruster"and showed us some beautiful things she had already done.

 I think she used some kind of wheel cover to get this wonderful effect.

 Winki"s scarves were very soft and subtle in color, they were luscious.

 She revealed her secret which she gave me permission to use on my blog. Besides the rust, she uses spices such as tumeric and curry along with fruit like blueberries. The coloring was just beautiful.

 More of Winki's beautiful work.

And more to follow.
I'm going to Cotton Patch Quilters tomorrow in Athens, GA and will be back Thurs to share more of the fun stuff we did this last week.
Til next time......