“So what did you think of blacksmithing?” friends ask. “I loved it,” I say. “Though it was one of those classes I could have loved or hated based solely on the teacher. Thankfully, I had a really good teacher.” In my ten weeks here at the Folk School, I haven’t just been studying blacksmithing, or…
Category: Travels
A New Use for our Garden Shed
Last month, I took Tom Dahaney’s Building a Garden Shed class. In five days, we accomplished quite a bit. What was left undone, we were told, would be completed by the Work Study students with the help of the maintenance department. On Saturday night, I had the pleasure of attending a wedding here on the…
Rocking Chairs
Beth and I went to sit down on the porch, overlooking the mountains. She took one rocking chair, I took another. “Oh – this is the one I don’t like,” I said as I got up and moved to another chair. Beth looked at the chair I had vacated and said, “Yeah, I don’t…
A Day in the Life: Tuesday
“So what exactly is a host?” my dining companions often ask when they see my position listed on my nametag. Where to start? I often wonder. My short answer is this: I live and work here in exchange for room and board and a class every week. The “class every week” part stops most people…
A Host Not Like Most?
“So have you made a lot of things so far?” my new co-host asked me. Having taken eight weeks of classes here at the Folk School, one would assume I have a cabinet filled with the fruits of my labors. “Actually, no,” I said. “I’ve purposely chosen classes where I don’t make a lot of…
Therapy
This morning at the Folk School the blacksmiths pounded steel and the woodcarvers gouged bowls. The cooking class fried stuffed peppers and the rug hookers dyed wool. Where was I? Lying on my back staring at the clouds – doing “cloud therapy” as my writing instructor called it. It was while watching wispy clouds flow…
Dressing the Part
“Oh – look at your pretty toes!” she said. I smiled as I looked down at my Merlot-colored toenails. They hadn’t been out in public in quite some time. No, it wasn’t the beginning of summer. This was last week. Weather-wise, we are still in open-toed shoe season, but here at the Folk School I’ve…
On Gifts
I believe that there are certain gifts we’ve all been given. Call them talents, strengths, whatever. We’ve all got some. (If you don’t think you have any, please contact me! I’ll help you figure out what they are. No one should go through life thinking they don’t have gifts.) One of the things that makes…
A Trip to Lowes…again
On my first evening in the woodturning studio two weeks ago, I put on the safety glasses the Folk School had on hand. I could feel the plastic digging into my cheeks. Wearing these things for six hours a day for the next five days was not going to be comfortable – and the indented-skin-around-the-eyes…
Adventures in Woodturning
An emotional roller coaster. That’s how you might describe a tough week of unexpected things. Or, if you’re me, that’s how you describe your week in the woodturning studio. By 3:30 on Thursday, I’d had enough. I put a plastic bad over the piece I’d been working on (to keep it from drying out) and…
RenaissanceRebecca 