Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Randall Darwall Workshop Part 1 - Overview

It was like Christmas. But better. We waited and waited for the whole year. And then it finally happened. For six exciting days, our two Santas greeted us at 8.30 AM every morning and we got stuck into the magical world of colors (and values and proportions, but more on these later).

The most surprising thing was both Randy and creative collaborator & life partner Brian Murphy were such nice people, (was I expecting cantankerous East Coast artistes?), as were my 11 fellow weavers. So the week passed in an encouraging, cordial camaraderie. (The weather was glorious and here is Brian plotting to get away for a few hours of bike ride.)

Randy gave us personalized goals during our Show & Tell, and pointers and encouragements throughout the week, as we worked our ways though our own warps, and six inches each on 11 other looms.

Five days of theory and practice culminated in the critique sessions on the last day, when we took the samples off the 12 looms and analyzed each piece.

Bittersweet graduation; I wanted to keep going for at least another week; I wanted to keep these two guys. (Waratahs are Australian, Brian.)

Randy and Brian drove off into the distance (Taupo, to be exact) shortly after this, while we reflected on the excitement of the past week. Unlike Santa, Randy and Brian won't be back next year, but we were given presents we would treasure for years and years to come.

2 comments:

  1. Wow - so cool - I'm pleased you've had this energizing creative experience!

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  2. Phelgmy, it was so awesome mere words can't describe, but I have to tell ya, this day-time-night-time cold medicine is dulling my mind and I can't recall a lot of it already. (Who said it's not the medicine?!)

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