Folk School and Quilt Shop Hop

John C. Campbell Folk School is a wonderful place! If you ever get the opportunity you should go and take one of the over 800 different classes they offer. The hardest part about it is choosing just which class to take. If you can think of a skill or art form, they offer a class in it.

I had an amazing time, and met so many wonderful people.

Besides the class, and the wonderful food we were served at each meal, there was all sorts of different opportunities for learning folklore, folk songs, and the interesting history of the school and the Appalachian people.

There were demonstrations given almost every evening by local artist as well as some of the instructors. I particularly enjoyed the ones on pottery and marbling (I'm including pictures taken during the marbling demonstration).

The storytelling class entertained us one evening with stories that I may have to try out on my grandchildren.

The thing that fascinated me most though was the Morris Dancing. I had never seen anything like this and would love to try to learn, but I have a great fear of knocking someone's head off. I had never heard of Morris dancing before, and incase you are in the same boat this is the description of it from the school's website:

The earliest record of Morris dancing dates from the aftermath of the crusades. It was a seasonal, ritual dance done by men in disguise, often at Christmas or May Day, with vaguely symbolic meanings. The “Border” version is mock sword fighting and bluff, and came from the English side of the Welsh border, and was intended to show those Welsh what they would get if they dared come over that border. Dancers perform with painted blue faces, colorful rag coats, loud leg bells, and plenty of attitude. They beat sticks together and shout rude taunts; even more cruel, sometimes they sing

The class I took was great! It was a class on Still Life Painting in Oils in the Style of the Old Masters. Melody Boggs was the instructor and we all learned so much. The class was just the right size to facilitate individual instruction, and the people in the class were so encouraging and kind. I will be sharing some of the pictures of my paintings later.

My camera went crazy on me while I was away, and it's still acting crazy. All of my pictures have a fuzzy element. I'm sorry. I didn't take many because I could tell they weren't turning out that great.