Serendipitously, my nephews in-laws own a beautiful lakefront home minutes from the Institute, which they graciously allowed me to use for the week. Checking morning emails while listening to gently lapping waves....watching sunsets from the dock....sigh....I could get used to this....
Then let me just say that the Chautauqua Institute is a wonderful place! The grounds are fabulously well maintained with beautiful gardens and lovely well preserved historic homes. There are many places to rent during the 9 week season, including the iconic Athenaeum Hotel.
There are also lots of activities for adults and kids; including daily lectures, enrichment programs, kids clubs and many special programs where guest instructors are bought in to teach on the arts. That's the program I was part of; I taught a week long metalsmithing class called "Cool Copper Cuffs". Eight students signed up for the entire week, and a few misc. students dropped in for daily projects, none of which had ever touched metal before. I'm pleased to say by the end of the week they were all officially fully initiated "metal heads". But I have to give the "student of the week" award to my new buddy Merle; hands down the most enthusiastic of the bunch.
Here's our classroom, and some of our daily projects....
And as a bonus, I met up with friends from the old days, including my childhood sweetheart....ahhh, how young we were.....
Looks and sounds like a wonderful weekend in a very relaxing place. The institute sounds fantastic too! The cuffs are absolutely amazing-I would love to spend a week creating those beauties!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathleen, I hope to be back next summer and would love to have you join us! :-)
DeleteEva - these pieces are awesome. I really love the gold branch-like texture with the turquoise finish. Do you know where that texture came from / what was used? Applied with a rolling mill?
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