I'm Back!

I'm back home after a wonderful trip to the US. I managed to avoid hurricanes and floods, although it was the wettest Spring on record in Columbus. The AFIC Conference went really well - I had a wonderful, focussed class with a number of the students finishing their pieces in the three days, which was great. The atmosphere at the conference was buzzing and energetic with plenty going on all the time outside class time. Thanks must go to the indefatiguable Cyndy Sieving for her fantastic skills at organizing and running such a wonderful event. If you are at all tempted to attend in 2013, start saving and do it! You will have a great time, meet some wonderful people and learn a lot!
Here are some pictures from the class at AFIC:

Emily Eckel's wonderful w.i.p.

Cody Goodin's fabulous figure almost completed

Kristen Strand-Tibbets great idea taking shape

Hard at work

I wish I had taken more pictures, or at least more that weren't duds!

Here's a picture of The Ladies In Orange at the Hat and Heels banquet - Gypsy Pamela Armas and Peggy from Taos:

The class at Annie Hesse's place in Florida was also terrific - I loved what those gals came up with. When I am teaching,  what I really like to do is to create an atmosphere where I can simply pass a baton (an idea; a technique or two) and then watch as the students take the baton and run with it, with bit of help where needed. That happened with both of these classes. It was great.

I had a bit of spare time on this trip, so I spent some of it with my good friend Linda Apple in Columbus. She is a talented painter and she also makes wonderful art dolls usually with a fair dose of quirky humour. Check out her work here: http://applearts.com/

We have a lot in common, so we spend time bouncing ideas off each other as we work. Here are some of the pieces I managed to get made in that arty hothouse atmosphere: