It will be hard to say good-bye to Shakerag. What a magical place.
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| my morning walk at Shakerag |
Just completed my week of learning and being in the roll of student at Shakerag taking Yoshiko Wada's Boro Transformed workshop.
It was interesting transitioning from a teacher to a student over the weekend. The volunteers and staff here were so kind making sure I was included in meals and field trips as they were preparing for the next week of students and faculty. I got to go to the Piggly Wiggly and a flea market - what else could I ask for?
I also got some nice front porch time with my stitching project and the dogs of Shakerag.
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| dog day at Shakerag |
Yoshiko's workshop was wonderful. Packed full of information and new experiences. She brought some beautiful examples from her personal collection of old authentic boro pieces:
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| Boro piece from Yoshiko Wada's collection |
as well as this contemporary piece created in a boro-like style - this is a shirt created in the Nui Project - a stitching and embroidery workshop for developmentally disabled adults in Japan:
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| stitched shirt from the Nui Project in Japan |
A brand new experience for me was indigo dying - even though it is not a color I usually use in my artwork, or wear, it was interesting to learn the process and the language: waking up the vat, putting it to sleep, feeding it, was it tired or happy? I think the language may have been my favorite part.
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| this is a happy vat! |
I started on a piece I had been thinking about for a while but couldn't quite get started on. Yoshiko gave me some inspiring advice to distress my piece with what I found around Shakerag. So I distressed it with rocks, stained it with Shakerag dirt and threw it in the lake at once point!
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| my stitched piece in "the res" with leaf... |
Much of my week was spent stitching and examining boro for patching and mending ideas.
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| my project in progress |
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| detail - so much stitching! |
I still have a lot of work to do on the piece but I made substantial progress on it.
I also finished the sample book I started last week, made a bag called a tsuno bukuro, and learned to make a sashiko thimble.
Another fantastic week all around. It is hard to leave but comforting to know that I will be back next year again as a student. Yes, I will!
See my previous two posts to see more about the place and my experience teaching there.
Thank you Shakerag...
