We gathered at Snail's Pace in Saluda on Friday afternoon. This retreat was the first time that all twelve of us were together for the entire retreat. I made sure to get a picture as we began on Friday.
Friday afternoon several members set up our creative space with a new layout which worked better than last year. We all gathered at 5:30 p.m. for happy hour and sharing. Our main agenda for the first evening was getting on board and sharing our exchanges.
The creative exchanges were delightful. You can see the creative variety. (picture to come)
We were all working on different projects this years, but had a number of demos that were fun and informative. We learned how to draw our own hands to transfer to fabric. We experimented with soot stamping on clayboard and we each carved a handmade stamp. We stamped a copy of each persons''s stamp design in our journals.
Saturday was a rainy day so we canceled the afternoon hike. The rain could not keep us from taking a trip to town to shop at RandomArts.
We had a lot of discussion about next year's retreat. There was universal agreement about needing a longer time together. Next year, we're going to start on Thursday. Our theme will be New Beginnings and we will each make a journal cover before we come. We will put together a hand-made journal at the beginning of the retreat which we will use for the retreat journal exercises and notes on the demonstrations. With the added day, each of us will do a demo next year.
The retreat ended earlier than we had anticipated when the snow fall began around 11 a.m. Sunday morning. Instead of our closing journal exercise, I asked each person to share what they were thankful for from the weekend. Everyone from out of town then packed up quickly and got on the road while a few of us who did not have far to go helped clean up.
It is a joy to take time to focus on creativity and to share that time with friends. We all agreed that the value of friendships combined with art is a blessing in our lives.
Oh Betsey, I had no idea when I commented on your retreat gifts the other day that you were headed to the meet the same divas that Kristin Steiner was telling me she was going to. I know it was a magical weekend because Kristi emailed me and told me all about it. How wonderful to be able to all meet together and continue special projects year after year. (Ann from UK).
Posted by: Ann Somerset Miles | March 03, 2009 at 01:55 PM
Sounds like you all had a good time. I'll bet they all loved thier gifts!
Posted by: carol sloan | March 11, 2009 at 10:20 PM