Cool Spring Blog

... and they are a Wow!  Isabelle Truchon’s class on creating a Decorative Monogram on Stretched Canvas had such a fabulous time and look at what they did – each in their own unique way.  As one participant exclaimed  "Non-intimidating, friendly atmosphere, wonderful women, great location, wonderful food!” 

Teaching artist Truchon was equally pleased.   “The class ran so smoothly that it was like being in my art studio playing with my friends. I love how each monogram created had its own unique style. Hillbrook Inn is serene and beautiful.” 

That is CraftWorks in a nutshell.  We offer hands-on classes that bring out the best in each participant, that refresh them with a mini-vacation from their everyday world and that encourage them to let their creativity come out and play.  Watch for new classes in everything from homesteading to woodblock printing.  Watch also for special locations like Hillbrook Inn while we build a brand new studio/gathering place building. 

Site and sight – two words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings.  CraftWorks will be much engaged with both in 2010.  We’re preparing and will soon submit our site plan to the county communicating what our campus will contain – an exciting new building – and detailing the infrastructure to be sure it is safe and user-friendly.  Meantime and even more importantly, we have honed our sight by defining the significant vision by which every CraftWorks action will be measured. 

CraftWorks at Cool Spring is a center for creative learning and sustainable living that supports stewardship of the Cool Spring Marsh landscape, where people come to learn, relax and rejuvenate in a setting that fosters deep connections with the natural environment and stronger communities.

.  If this vision has meaning for you and your family, please support our non-profit efforts as we roll out a membership program in the next few months, ask for volunteers, present 40 hands-on classes, as well as some nifty events and adventures.

We’ve brought a talented artist and organizer to CraftWorks – Isabelle Truchon.  Isabelle will help provide the leadership that lights up our Visual Arts classes at CraftWorks.  She’ll seek out the best and brightest teachers and meld them with innovative and inspiring classes.  CraftWorks offers classes that enable even beginners to let their inner creativity emerge. 

Come meet and learn about Isabelle and her own unique creativity and superb teaching skills at a special class in a special place on January 26. She is teaching Decorative Monogram on Stretched Canvas (if you are thinking embroidery, you need to see it) from 9-4 at the beautiful Hillbrook Inn.  There’ll be fun, fellowship, a great lunch, a beautiful setting, and you’ll go home with a ready-to-hang work of art.  Best of all, your lunch and materials are included in the $125 tuition. 

Have an idea for a Visual Art class you want CraftWorks to offer?  Write DavidLillard@wvcraftworks.org.

The CraftWorks’ land always has some new facet to reveal.  This morning the trees, bushes, plants were encased in ice crystals and as the sun rose, they sparkled with tiny light bounces. 

But this special glazing was only on this special land because water abounds in the marsh, in the creek and in the ponds.  As I drove out to the main road, the winter trees were still beautiful but iceless and without magic. 

Here’s a bit of a poem called Ice Storm by Barbara Crooker -

“Some crazed glazier has cast these ceramics,

his icy touch in the glass garden,

but look, where the sun is touching,

everything, everything, everything’s light.”

It’s the day after the big 22” snow storm.  And it’s the perfect day to look for animal tracks.  There is no problem finding those of deer.  They are everywhere and the plowed road is literally their highway.  They are no dummies when it comes to the best route.  I’ve learned to follow their trails. 

This diverging pair of tracks reminded me of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Less Traveled.”  Frost writes “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

I’ve been using what I learned at Rhonda Roebuck’s CraftWorks class in collaging to start a set of small books chronicling the land and nature here at Cool Spring.  October with all the fall color made an easy start.  I skipped November but am now gearing up to do December’s offering. 

At first the land looks so drab in winter – especially after the October riot.  But the closer one looks and the more the eye becomes accustomed to the pallet of the many browns, deep yellows,  sagey greens, the red and orange berries, the textural pine cones and then the shocking magnificence of the occasional snow, December entices with its own special beauty.   Now, if I can just capture that in my book….