MQ Starts Tomorrow!

Workshops start today, but I have to teach this afternoon and so won't take part. Looking forward to the vendor fair tomorrow morning! And on Saturday, Tea & Ephemera with Judy Coates Perez!

Confluence

Well, I might have overpaid a little for the SDA Confluence convention - I loved my workshop, but the vendor fair was so-so and I wasn't able to get away from work as often as I'd hoped; so there wasn't the opportunity to enjoy exhibit tours and concurrent sessions. But I LOVED my workshop. There's still time to run around and see the many exhibits associated with the convention as well, and I will, if I can. But the major part of my investment in the convention was the conference fee, and in retrospect I probably could have put that money to better use. SDA allowed separate workshop registration, and day passes; if I have the opportunity again, locally, I'll be more careful.

My workshop was with Jennifer Reis, who offered a basic primer on embroidery stitches and different types of embellishment for cloth. She was funny, clear and direct, a good teacher and a tolerant one. Her heavily-embellished artworks were the basis for classroom technniques, and not far removed from the techniques I'm using -- but I taught myself, and needed to see someone with more expertise demonstrate proper methods.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from the conference. Possibly a much bigger vendor fair -- no reason really to assume that, but maybe the effect would have been enhanced had there been exhibits I wanted to see under the same roof as the workshop. People (women really) who have been to conferences in the past told me that the traditional location in Kansas is a concentrated university campus, and all exhibits and activities are located close together. "Confluence" was based out of the Radisson University, at the U of MN's Minneapolis campus. The U is a dispersed campus: at least 50% of the land is located miles away in St. Paul, or across the river from the main campus on the East Bank. So there were shuttles and campus connector busses needed to get around, from my workshop (St. Paul) to the main site (Minneapolis), to the exhibits at participating galleries (West Bank and other venues in and around the downtown area.) Plus, the city decided at the last moment to start construction on the new rail line that runs right through the heart of campus -- closing a major thoroughfare. Consequently there were detours aplenty.

I scheduled too much activity at the office. I hope I can do better this week, once the MQ Show gets rolling. And, maybe, a bigger vendor fair to look forward to?

random updates

more from the japanese sketchbook - "pearls lie not"

another view

this has changed since the photo was taken - updates later. pieces were moved from page to page.