I’m Going Back to School

On Friday morning my sister and I will fly down to Atlanta and then drive 3 hours or so to westernmost North Carolina to the John C. Campbell Folk School. We’ve both been receiving their catalogs for a few years now and have talked and talked about going together to take a class. I finally called her about 6 months ago and said “Let’s just do it – let’s pick a weekend and go.” So we did. We are really excited to be going and I’m hoping to find lots of great picture-taking opportunities on the drive there.

Most of their classes are week-long events, but they do offer a pretty wide variety of courses over weekends.

I will be taking “Introduction to Spinning” which will teach me how to evaluate a fleece in terms of spinning, wash, dry, pick, card, and spin. I’ll start spinning on a drop spindle and graduate to a spinning wheel. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do this. In fact I have a garbage bag full of fleece that my farrier in Wyoming sheered off his sheep that I can practice with once I get home.





My sister will be taking “Basic Bowls and Beyond” which will teach her woodturning on a lathe. This is something that I have just learned myself and will post about soon. My son, Evan, and I have been turning pens like crazy. It’s tons of fun.


Anyway, she’ll learn about wood selection and blank preparation. Get experienced in tool sharpening, tool use on the lathe, and other studio equipment. Techniques for turning bowls safely and efficiently, texturing and finishing. How fun! It’s totally out of her normal range of art (she’s a polymer clay artist), so I can’t wait to see what she makes!


I figure learning how to spin wool will be my excuse to add some sheep to the flock and get rid of the lawnmower!




I’ll be back on Sunday night and will post about my adventures there next week.