slowly she turned

Hello friends! I am back from a rejuvenating six days (including travel) at John C. Campbell Folk School, where I finally snagged a spot in a class I’ve wanted to take for a long, long time – “Wrapping Wild: Making Animals Out of Recycled Materials,” taught by the amazing Bryant Holsenbeck. First, the photos of my work, then more class photos on the next post, then more photos on a third post, because these posts are going to be extremely photo heavy!

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go to this much-anticipated workshop at all after my husband had a stroke last week, but y’all, those clot-busting meds are miracles and he was declared fully recovered. My nerves were still a bit shot but after two nights I was relaxed and feeling wonderful with my tribe. Such is the experience of John C. Campbell Folk School.

Bryant is an environmental sculptor and mixed media artist who began her art career as a basketeer. (Yes, that’s the best word for it.) She lives near me so I’ve seen her work in Greensboro and a good friend of mine learned random weave basketry from her about thirtyish years ago, then got me hooked on the technique. I made a lot of random weave baskets and wreathes for a while out of the jungle of vines on the edges of our urban lot, as well as foraged materials. I’ve always been interested in moving from natural materials to recycled materials and incorporated found objects in my work, so Bryant’s work has fascinated me for years.

I started out by making an alligator and by the second day my brain was racing with all the possibilities. We made sketches and researched the body structures of the animals we chose. This really turned out to be important – when you draw, even from a photo or another drawing, you are forced to pay attention to the proportions of the animal’s body. It usually turns out to be a little different than you thought. Materials used here: wire, plastic grocery bags, old clothing, a couple of different belt scraps from the chair seats class courtesy of my roomie, Merideth, buttons, thread, yarn, and bead strand. We all helped each other problem solve every day. The beads were the perfect tooth solution from the other Laurie in the class. I present to you: the evolution of Gertie Gator.

I wanted to do a bird and a mammal – so next I made my favorite bird, a pileated woodpecker. This was in keeping with my tendency to mine inspiration from Lake Waccamaw, since I’ve seen a pileated woodpecker there, but there are pileated woodpeckers at JCCFS as well. So here’s the progress on Woodrow. He’s not totally finished because I wanted to start the structure of a squirrel while I had the expertise of Bryant at hand. Materials, wire, plastic bags, fabric, thread, yarn, trim, driftwood stick.

And here’s the beginning of my squirrel. I’ll name him Archie and pretend that my little rescued baby squirrel is alive and well out in an oak tree somewhere.