Sunday, October 21, 2012

Hand Painted Scarves

I love learning new things and so when a friend encouraged me to take a class in hand painting scarves I jumped at the chance.  I took a class yesterday. The class was in Black Mountain, NC so I needed to drive about an hour.  The drive was glorious! The leaves are "at peak" and the town was buzzing because the annual leaf festival is going on. Black Mountain is a sweet little town still mostly untouched by commercialization. I easily found a parking place nearby on the street and entered the Black Mountain Yarn Shop right on time. I was offered a cup of fresh coffee and ushered to the back room where the tables were set up for the  class. The class was made up of 3 students and one instructor. I was given great personal attention and inspired to set my creativity free. I started in a more controlled manner and gradually loosened up. It  can be a freeing art form like finger painting or abstract art or more controlled to get a more detailed final product. I think I am going for the freedom factor from now on. Everyone produced very different forms of art and each was beautiful in its unique expression. One lady decided to take the simplest technique and just have fun with it. I used that technique and tried something more complex to experiment. The third lady was a photographer.She brought beautiful pictures of butterflies and she wanted to interpret them on her scarf. This was very complex and I think it involved having to let it dry and do other steps on another day. What her scarf looked like when I left was beautiful and she wasn't even finished. I hope she brings it next time so I can enjoy her finished product. This is my new art love! I don't have any materials to continue working yet and I am planning to take a class in November to learn more.

When the class was completed I drove by a friend's house to see if she was home. This is a childhood friend who I had not seen for over 30 years until we ran into each other in a store randomly about 2 years ago. We recognized each other immediately. It may not seem as unusual to you reading this as it does to us because neither of us are from this state. We grew up in south Florida. She had married and moved to Atlanta. I had  married and moved to Baltimore. Yet here we were face to face in a store called " Divine Connections" . In the years between our meeting again, combined we had 6 children 3 grand children, both of us had lost our parents and somehow at this point in life moved to within an hour of each other.
When I arrived at her doorstep unexpected, my friend was working, but her husband quickly adopted me , and took me on a tour of Black Mountain.First we went to see my friend at work ,got lunch and then toured some more of Black Mountain mostly on foot. They convinced me to stay over in their guest room so we could go to a lecture and visit some more that night.We laughed like little girls until 2:30 am.
Here is what I learned on my tour. Everyone walks everywhere. Everyone knows you if you live there because everyone speaks to you. If they don't recognize you, you are from out of town (probably  in town for the leaf festival) and so they welcome you and ask where you are from. They have a huge Halloween turn out and if you live there you need to have thousands of pieces of candy ready at the door. (no exaggeration). If you are decorating outside the fireman just might come and help you hang that high stuff or hold the ladder.It is almost Mayberry.

I already have my reservation in to stay at my friend's house in November for my next scarf class. This time I will bring my toothbrush and some clothes. I love retirement, for the first time in my life I am free to live spontaneously!

Here is the scarf:



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