I am always a little late to the first night of classes. I hate being late for anything. But I have Host duties to attend to, so I always arrive about a half hour late. My co-host Cory says the worst thing about this is that you miss the introductions. My spinning teacher over the…
Category: Travels
Things You Wouldn’t See Back Home
“Cheap Cigarettes” – words you’d expect in the window of a gas station, but in the foyer of a library? $1.50 a pack for Seneca cigarettes it said. He had examples to show me it said. Wish I’d taken a picture of that sign for you all to see…. Craving chocolate, I stopped by the…
Another Job
I dropped my bag onto the bathroom floor and closed the door behind me. As I pulled off my jeans and stepped into a silky red halter dress I’d borrowed, I overheard the instructor telling her students, “The model is in the bathroom getting ready.” This was the first time in my life I’d ever…
Playing with Fire
This week at the John C. Campbell Folk School, I took a glass bead making class with Lynday Huneycutt. This class was held in the Enameling Studio located on Studio Row. First, we outfitted ourselves: The apron is to protect me from flying shards of glass – which thankfully don’t happen too often if you…
A Visit to the Woodturning Studio
As if it weren’t already hard enough to choose which classes I’d like to take, here’s something that makes it harder: studio visits. Anytime there are classes going on, anyone can go into the studios to see what’s happening. If you happen to find yourself in Brasstown, NC (though this is not a place one…
Student Arrival
Yesterday, I moved in. Today, the new students moved in. They’ll be here until Friday taking classes in everything from soapmaking and weaving to blacksmithing and banjo playing. They come from as far away as Maine and California, and as close as Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Actually, it can take 8 hours to drive…
Beginning at the End
At the end of every week at the Folk School, everyone gathers in the Community Room of the Keith House to display their finished works and admire the works of others. It’s quite impressive what people can accomplish in just one week of class. Here are some pictures I took yesterday: Doll making class with…
Why Wait?
“Do you always come down here with someone else?” I asked Lois last night at dinner. “Oh, no. No need to wait that long,” she said. My sentiments exactly. If we wait for the ideal travel partner (or any travel partner, for that matter), we may never go. So when people say, “You’re doing all…
Talking to Strangers: In Small Towns
“Meet my future wife,” he said as he introduced me. This was the first I’d heard we were engaged. I’d only met him two hours earlier, but apparently I’d made an impression. I’d left Virginia Beach around eight that morning, plugged “Raleigh, NC” into my GPS, then hit the button to avoid highways. Why? Well,…
A Day of Freebies
“You don’t happen to have any more change, do you?” I asked the guy filling his parking meter behind mine. I had decided to lighten my load of change into a tip jar at a local coffee shop earlier, which didn’t bode well for my current situation: parking at a meter in DC to meet…
RenaissanceRebecca 